How much sugar is enough?

If you're a fan - you tend to like it, a lot! If you're not - you can pretty much take it or leave it.

But if you're a fan - you just have to have it.

Sugar is such an integral part of our lives these days that even just looking to stop adding extra sugar to our food is not enough to help achieve our health goals.

The WHO (World Health Organisation) has recently released it's most up-to-date guidance on sugar consumption.

The new WHO guidelines strongly suggest that "adults and children should reduce their intake of free sugars* by roughly half - to less than 10 per cent of their daily calories.

However, to accrue the most health benefits, this figure should actually be as low as 5 per cent. That’s the equivalent of just 25g, or six teaspoons, a day."

They go on to say that these guidelines "don't apply to naturally occurring sugars in fruits, vegetables and milk, since they come with essential nutrients."

You need to be careful as they point out "most free sugars are added to products by manufacturers and effectively "hidden" in a large spectrum of processed foods."

You can read a review of the report here.

*Free sugar is defined by the World Health Organization and the US Food and Agriculture Organization in multiple reports as "all monosaccharides and disaccharides added to foods by the manufacturer, cook, or consumer, plus sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, and fruit juices".