RECOMMENDED DAILY SUGAR and FAT INTAKE

The World Health Organization is dropping its sugar intake recommendations from 10 percent of your daily calorie intake to 5 percent. For an adult of a normal body mass index (BMI), that works out to about 6 teaspoons — or 25 grams — of sugar per day.Mar 5, 2014

Yet, the average American consumes 19.5 teaspoons (82 grams) every day. That translates into about 66 pounds of added sugar consumed each year, per person.

For a man or woman on a 2,000-calorie diet, the target fat-calorie range is 400 to 700 calories. Fat contains nine calories per gram, so divide each number of the fat-calorie range by nine to determine your daily fat grams. For a 2,000-calorie per daydiet, the recommended daily fat intake is 44 to 78 grams.

Food labels can be confusing. Below is an example of the Irish Heart Foundation recommendations on what is High, Medium and Low in sugar, fats, saturates and salt per 100 gram (40-50 grams would be the approximate amounts in our morning cereals)

Per 100 gram:

SUGARS: High @ over 22.5g, Medium @ between 5g and 22.5g, Low @ under 5 grams

FAT: High @ over 17.5g, Medium @ between 3 and 17.5g, Low @ under 3g

SATURATES: High @ over 5g, Medium @ between 1.5g and 5g, Low @ under 1.5g

SALT: High @ over 1.5g, Medium @ between 0.3g and 1.5g. Low @ under 0.3g

NOTE: 4 grams of sugar would be equivalent to one teaspoon of sugar.

The small clear plastic bag under each food item in the photo shows the volume of sugar that each food item contains, and was taken in ‘Our Lady’s Hospital in Crumlin in 2017