What WHO counts
WHO’s advice is about free sugars, which it defines as “monosaccharides and disaccharides (e.g. sucrose, fructose, glucose) added to foods and beverages by the manufacturer, cook or consumer, and sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates.”1
So honey, syrups and fruit juice concentrate all count, however natural they sound.
How much
WHO recommends that free sugars be “limited to less than 10% of total daily energy intake, which is equivalent to 50 g (or about 12 level teaspoons) for a person of healthy body weight consuming about 2000 calories per day.” It adds that going down to 5% or less “may provide additional health benefits.”1
The names to look for
| On the label | What it is | In Spanish and Chinese |
|---|---|---|
| Sugar, sucrose | Ordinary table sugar, from cane or beet. | azúcar白砂糖 |
| Brown sugar | Sucrose with some molasses left in or added back. | azúcar moreno红糖 |
| Coconut sugar, palm sugar | Sugar made from palm sap. | azúcar de coco椰糖 |
| Glucose, dextrose | A simple sugar. Dextrose is another name for it. | glucosa, dextrosa葡萄糖 |
| Fructose | A simple sugar found in fruit and honey. | fructosa果糖 |
| Glucose syrup, corn syrup | A syrup made by breaking down starch, often from corn or wheat. | jarabe de glucosa葡萄糖浆 |
| High-fructose corn syrup, glucose-fructose syrup | Glucose syrup with part of its glucose turned into fructose. Europe calls it glucose-fructose syrup. | jarabe de glucosa y fructosa果葡糖浆 |
| Invert sugar, invert syrup | Sucrose split into its two halves, glucose and fructose. | azúcar invertido转化糖 |
| Honey | Counted by WHO as free sugar. | miel蜂蜜 |
| Molasses, treacle | The dark syrup left over from refining sugar. | melaza糖蜜 |
| Maple syrup, agave syrup | Syrups, which WHO counts as free sugar. | jarabe de arce, sirope de agave枫糖浆, 龙舌兰糖浆 |
| Fruit juice concentrate | Counted by WHO as free sugar, even though it comes from fruit. | zumo concentrado de frutas浓缩果汁 |
Count them, not just the first line
Ingredients are listed by weight, heaviest first.23 A product that uses three kinds of sugar lists each one separately, and each sits lower than all three together would. So it’s worth counting the sugars, not only checking whether sugar comes first. More on reading the order.