Sugar per day: the benchmark to know

The WHO benchmark: under 10% of energy, ideally under 5%

The WHO recommends limiting "free sugars" to under 10% of total energy intake, for both adults and children. It adds that cutting further, to under 5% of energy, would bring an additional health benefit — roughly 25 g per day (about 6 teaspoons) for a 2000 kcal diet. "Free sugars" covers sugar added by the manufacturer, the cook, or you, plus sugar naturally present in honey, syrups and fruit juices — but not the intact sugar inside a whole piece of fruit or vegetable.

The ANSES benchmark: 100 g of total sugars per day

ANSES frames it differently, looking at total sugars rather than only free sugars, and recommends no more than 100 g per day for an adult, excluding lactose and galactose — the natural sugars in milk and dairy, left out of the count because they don't carry the same public-health risk. This benchmark drops with age: 100 g for teens aged 13-17, 75 g for children aged 8-12, 60 g for children aged 4-7. The agency also adds a simple rule of thumb: no more than one sugary drink a day.

The two benchmarks don't contradict each other — they're just measuring slightly different things (free sugars for the WHO, total sugars minus lactose/galactose for ANSES), landing in the same ballpark once you adjust for scope. The shared takeaway: aim for noticeably less than what most people currently eat.

Where the sugar you eat actually comes from

The "visible" sugar — the one in your coffee or the Sunday cake — usually isn't the main issue. Most free sugars sneak in through sources that don't taste especially sweet:

• Soda and sugary drinks: the top source of free sugars for many people, often 25-35 g in a single 330 ml can.
• Fruit juice, nectars, smoothies: even fresh-squeezed or from concentrate, the WHO classes these as free sugars, same as soda.
• Ultra-processed foods: breakfast cereal, industrial sauces (ketchup, Asian-style sauces), ready meals, savory snacks — sugar hides here to boost taste or texture, without the product ever reading as "sweet."
• Pastries, desserts, candy: the most obvious source, but often not the heaviest one once you add up a whole week.

It's this dilution into foods that don't look sweet on the surface that makes the WHO benchmark hard to hit without paying attention.

Why your calorie app doesn't always help

Many counters show a single "carbs" total without breaking out how much of it is sugar — but a complex carb (the starch in a potato) and a free sugar (the glucose-fructose syrup in a soda) don't behave the same way. To spot where sugar hides day to day, you need an app that lists sugar separately, ideally alongside the product's Nutri-Score — sugar weighs heavily in that score, and a product graded D or E is often marked down partly because of it (see our Nutri-Score guide). Radish relies on official CIQUAL tables to show sugar next to your other macros, instead of leaving you with a vague "carbs" total.

How to cut back without feeling deprived

You don't need to eliminate sugar entirely — the goal is getting back under the benchmarks, not hitting zero. A few simple, high-leverage moves:

• Swap sugary drinks for water or infused water — usually the single most effective change, given the quantities involved.
• Choose whole fruit over juice: the fiber in whole fruit slows sugar absorption, unlike juice, which the WHO classes as free sugar.
• Read labels on foods that don't "look" sweet: sauces, industrial bread, cereal, ready meals.
• Check the Nutri-Score to compare two similar products in a few seconds.

General information, not medical advice.

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