Health Guide
Added Sugar Limits Explained
Two accepted framings — the AHA's gram limits and the WHO's percentage of energy. What each says, and why they're limits not targets.
Last updated: August 29, 2026
Unlike most figures on this site, added sugar recommendations are upper limits to stay under rather than targets to hit. There is no requirement for added sugar in the diet at all.
The AHA gram limits
The American Heart Association's recommended daily maximums for added sugars:
| Group | Limit |
|---|---|
| Women | 25 g/day (about 6 teaspoons) |
| Men | 36 g/day (about 9 teaspoons) |
Our Daily Sugar Calculator returns the relevant figure. In calorie terms, 25 g of sugar is about 100 kcal and 36 g about 144 kcal.
The WHO percentage framing
The World Health Organization takes a different approach in its 2015 Guideline: Sugars intake for adults and children, recommending that free sugars stay under 10% of total energy, and ideally under 5%.
Because it is a percentage of intake, the resulting gram figure depends on your calorie total:
| Daily calories | 10% limit | 5% ideal |
|---|---|---|
| 1,800 kcal | 45 g | 22 g |
| 2,000 kcal | 50 g | 25 g |
| 2,500 kcal | 62 g | 31 g |
Both framings are accepted, and they are not identical — the AHA gram limits are generally the stricter of the two at typical calorie intakes, sitting closer to the WHO's 5% ideal than its 10% ceiling. Neither is "the" correct number; they are two reasonable public-health approaches, which is why we label this moderate confidence.
Your calorie total for the percentage approach can come from the TDEE Calculator.
Added sugars, not all sugars
An important distinction. These limits concern added sugars — those put into foods during processing or preparation — and the WHO's related concept of free sugars, which also covers sugars in syrups, honey, and fruit juice.
Sugars occurring naturally in whole fruit and in milk are not what these limits target. Whole fruit comes packaged with fiber and water in a form that behaves quite differently from the same sugar added to a drink.
Why it is easy to exceed
25 g is not a large amount once you look at where added sugar actually appears. It is concentrated in sweetened drinks, and it turns up in many foods that are not obviously sweet.
We are not going to publish gram counts for specific products here — that needs a food-composition source we do not cite, and packaging varies by market. Nutrition labels list added sugars in most countries and are the reliable place to check.
The bottom line
The AHA sets 25 g/day for women and 36 g/day for men; the WHO frames it as under 10% of energy, ideally under 5%. Both are limits on added sugars, not on sugar in whole fruit or milk, and neither is a target to reach. Check your figure on the Daily Sugar Calculator.