UK

A guide to sugars in your diet

When you’re walking around the supermarket it can be confusing trying to decide what to buy as part of a healthy, balanced diet. Many foods and drinks have different labels, front and back of pack, containing lots of information and can be difficult to understand.

To help you, we’ve taken a closer look at the labels of everyday kitchen favourites. We’ve included a calorie breakdown and some facts you may find surprising.

An average man needs 2,500 calories a day while for a woman it’s 2,000 calories. (53) The Reference Intake for total sugars as part of your diet is 90g a day for adults. This Reference Intake is based on the requirements for an average female with no special dietary requirements and an assumed energy intake of 2,000 calories. (44)

The references to the calorie percentages in this guide have been worked out based on the Reference Intake Guidelines of 2,000 calories a day and 90g of total sugars a day.