An article in the April 5, 2023 edition of The British Medical Journal by Huang and colleagues addressed concerns about excessive sugar intake. The authors reviewed summaries of 8,601 research articles on this topic.
They found evidence that excessive dietary sugar can contribute to multiple health problems including endocrine, cardiac, psychiatric, dental, bone, and allergy disorders.
People who consume large amounts of sugar have a greater body weight (especially from sugar sweetened beverages) and distribution of fat around internal organs (mainly from added sugars) when compared to people with low sugar intake.
The authors conclude that people should limit sugar intake to less than 25 grams per day (about 6 teaspoons of sugar per day) and limit sugar sweetened beverages to less than one serving of sugar sweetened beverages no more than once per week.
The paper reports that “generally, sugar sweetened beverages are the largest source of added sugars, including carbonated and noncarbonated soft drinks, fruit drinks, and sports and energy drinks.”
Peter M. Hartmann, MD
Family Medicine & Psychiatry
