New WHO Guideline Recommends Cutting Down on Free Sugars

A new guideline from the World Health Organization urges adults and children to reduce their daily intake of free sugars to less than 10% of their total energy intake.

By doing so, they could cut their risk of unhealthy weight gain, obesity, and tooth decay, according to evidence cited in the recent guideline update on sugars intake for adults and children.

Naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices, and fruit juice concentrates, free sugars include glucose, fructose, sucrose, and table sugar.
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Consumers may be surprised to find that most free sugars—monosaccharides and disaccharides—can be found in processed foods that they may not even consider “sweets.” For example, 1 tablespoon of ketchup contains about 4g of free sugars and 1 can of soda may pack up to 40g, according to WHO.

However, the organization’s recommendation refers only to free sugars, not the sugars found in fresh fruits, vegetables, and milk. There’s been no reported evidence suggesting any association between consuming those sugars and any adverse health effects.

The WHO Study Group actually first recommended reducing daily intake of free sugars to less than 10% of total energy intake for the first time in 1989. This latest update calls for a further reduction of free sugars to less than 5% of total energy intake to achieve even greater health benefits.

“When the experts reviewed the evidence, they found that dental caries still occurs at less than 10% of total energy intake and they further evaluated and decided to recommend less than 5% as a conditional recommendation,” says Chizuru Nishida, PhD, coordinator of Nutrition Policy and Scientific Advice for WHO’s Department of Nutrition for Health and Development.

“WHO issues conditional recommendations even when the quality of evidence may not be strong on the issues related to public health importance, and dental caries is an important public health issue,” she explains.

WHO describes a conditional recommendation as "one where the desirable effects of adhering to the recommendation probably outweigh the undesirable effects."

This new update reflects the latest scientific and medical knowledge on sugars intake. Three of its most significant recommendations include:

• Reduced intake of free sugars throughout the life course (strong recommendation).

• Reduced intake of free sugars to less than 10% of total energy intake in adults and children (strong recommendation).

• Further reduction of the intake of free sugars to below 5% of total energy intake (conditional recommendation).

“It is possible to achieve the recommendations in this guideline while respecting national dietary customs because a wide variety of whole and fresh foods are naturally low in sugars,” Nishida says. “Consumers can reduce the consumption of processed food and when they make purchases, they should read nutrition labeling to understand the contents of sugars of the processed food that they are consuming.”

The full guideline is available for download at www.who.int/nutrition/publications/guidelines/sugars_intake/en/.  

—Colleen Mullarkey

Reference

World Health Organization. Guideline: Sugars intake for adults and children. March 2015. Accessed 8 March 2015.