Hi everyone,

I’ve been looking at some research about sugar in drinks and I had to share some of it with you. The amount of calories and sugar so many of us are drinking, probably without even realising it, is truly shocking.

The recommended amount of sugar for adults is somewhere between 5 to 9 teaspoons a day, but it’s estimated that kids in the US are, on average, consuming between 19 to 29 teaspoons a day! In my mind this is a disaster. Just think of what that much extra sugar is doing to their blood sugar levels, not to mention their teeth and waistlines. And, if they keep consuming that much sugar as they grow up, these poor kids can also look forward to an increased risk of diabetes.

One of the biggest sources of extra calories in an American child’s diet is soda, but before you start shopping for alternatives take a look at this chart from Harvard University. You’ll see that many fruit juices have almost as much added sugar in them as soda.

I know people love their sweet drinks, but we can’t ignore the facts. If you’re curious about how much sugar you’re drinking in a week use this list (see page 2) to give you a rough idea. How many teaspoons of sugar are your drinks adding up to? Just imagine what a difference you could make to your health and your family’s health simply by drinking water most of the time and only having a soda every now and then.

If you want to cut down on sugar it’s important to remember that it’s not always listed as sugar on the label. We have a great new sugar toolkit which includes a list of the different types of sugar you might find on a food or drink label. Bear in mind that the higher up these things are on the ingredients list, the more sugar that product contains.

Thanks for reading,

Have a good one.

Jamie O