Guide September 2026 · 7 min read

Which sugar counts

Not all sugar is the target. The limits above refer to free sugars: sugar added by the manufacturer, the cook or you, plus the sugar naturally present in honey, syrups and fruit juice. Sugar inside whole fruit, vegetables and plain milk is intrinsic — it comes packaged with fiber, water or protein that slows its absorption, and it does not count toward the limit.

So: an apple is fine, apple juice is not; plain yogurt is fine, fruit yogurt often has 15 g added. The distinction matters because people who "cut sugar" often cut fruit first, which is the wrong end.

The numbers

For comparison, one 330 ml can of cola is 35 g. One flavoured latte is 25–40 g. One "healthy" granola bowl with fruit yogurt is 30–45 g before you have left the house.

Where sugar hides

The obvious sources — sweets, cake, soda — are the ones people already count. These are the ones they do not:

Sauces and condiments. Ketchup: 4 g per tablespoon. BBQ sauce: 6–8 g per tablespoon. Sweet chili, teriyaki, hoisin: 8–10 g per tablespoon. Pasta sauce from a jar: 6–12 g per serving. Salad dressings, especially "light" and "balsamic": 3–6 g per serving.

Bread and breakfast. Sliced white bread: 2–3 g per slice, more in "soft" and "wholemeal-style" brands. Cereal: 10–20 g per bowl, granola often more. Instant oatmeal packets: 10–12 g. Fruit yogurt: 12–20 g per pot.

Drinks that don't taste sweet. Flavoured water, iced tea, sports drinks, kombucha, tonic, "no added sugar" juices (the fruit sugar is still free sugar once juiced).

Savoury ready meals. Sweet-and-sour, curry sauces, sushi rice (seasoned with sugar), canned soup, baked beans (5 g per half can), coleslaw, pickles.

Health-halo products. Protein bars (often 15–25 g), smoothies (30–50 g), dried fruit (a small bag of raisins is 30 g of sugar), fruit "leathers", acai bowls, energy balls, plant milks (sweetened by default in many brands).

Coffee. Syrups, flavoured creamers, and the one sugar you add yourself, three times a day.

The 60 names for sugar

Label reading fails because sugar is listed under dozens of names. Anything ending in -ose (dextrose, fructose, glucose, maltose, sucrose), any syrup (corn, rice, agave, maple, golden, glucose-fructose), any juice concentrate, honey, molasses, cane juice, coconut sugar, barley malt, maltodextrin. Manufacturers also split sugar across several of these so no single one appears near the top of the ingredient list.

Two shortcuts:

• In the US, the label line "Includes Xg Added Sugars" (mandatory since 2020) is the number you want.
• In the EU, labels show total sugars only. Look at the ingredients: if a sweetener of any name is in the first three ingredients, treat the product as sugary regardless of the front-of-pack claim.

What sugar does that you can feel

The long-term effects — weight gain, type 2 diabetes, dental decay, cardiovascular risk — are real and well documented. The short-term effects are the ones that change behaviour:

• The crash. A sugar-heavy meal or drink spikes blood glucose, insulin responds, glucose drops below where it started. Result: tired, foggy and hungry 90–120 minutes later. This is the 4 pm slump and the 10 pm snack in one mechanism.
• Appetite. Sugar without fiber or protein does little for fullness. 300 kcal of juice and 300 kcal of eggs are not the same meal.
• Weekend pattern. For most people who track, weekend sugar runs well above weekday sugar — often close to double. Not because of cake — because of brunch, drinks and eating out, where sugar is invisible.

How to actually track sugar

Manual tracking of sugar is where most people give up: it requires reading every label and knowing every sauce. Three ways that work:

1. Scan barcodes. Sugar is on every label; a scan captures it exactly. Most apps discard it — CalMePlease keeps it as one of ten primary metrics.
2. Photograph the plate and name the sauce. A photo will not see the teriyaki; saying "with teriyaki sauce" lets the app account for it.
3. Log the drinks. Drinks are the largest single source of free sugar and the most-skipped log entry. Voice logging ("large iced latte with vanilla") takes three seconds.

Then look at the weekly pattern, not the daily number. One day at 60 g is noise. Every Saturday at 90 g is a habit with a fix.

Reducing sugar without going to war with it

• Fix drinks first. Switching one sweet drink a day to water, black coffee or unsweetened tea removes 25–40 g. That is the whole target.
• Swap the yogurt and cereal. Plain Greek yogurt plus fresh fruit instead of fruit yogurt; oats instead of granola. Another 20 g.
• Read one label category at a time. This week: sauces. Next week: bread. Not everything at once.
• Pair sugar with protein and fiber. If you are going to have the dessert, have it after a meal with both, not on an empty stomach at 4 pm. The crash is smaller.
• Do not chase zero. 25 g a day is the target, not 0. Fruit is not the enemy.

FAQ

How much sugar per day is OK? Under 25 g of free (added) sugar a day is the target most health bodies converge on; up to 36 g for men per the AHA. Sugar in whole fruit and plain dairy does not count.

Is fruit sugar bad? No. The sugar in whole fruit comes with fiber and water and does not count as free sugar. Fruit juice and dried fruit are different: concentrated and fast.

What foods have the most hidden sugar? Sauces (BBQ, teriyaki, ketchup, pasta sauce), flavoured yogurt, cereal and granola, bread, flavoured drinks, protein bars, smoothies and dried fruit.

How do I know if a product has added sugar? US labels show "Added Sugars" directly. Elsewhere, check the ingredient list for any sugar, syrup, juice concentrate or -ose in the first few ingredients.

Why do I crash after eating sugar? Fast sugar spikes blood glucose, insulin overshoots, glucose falls below baseline. The drop, not the spike, is what you feel — tiredness, fog and hunger 1–2 hours later.

How can I track sugar without reading every label? Scan barcodes for packaged food, name the sauce when logging a plate, and log drinks. An app that treats sugar as a primary metric — CalMePlease shows it on every meal — does the rest.

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Related: Why you crash after lunch · How much fiber per day · Barcode scanner for calories: what the label doesn't tell you

CalMePlease tracks sugar on every meal — from a photo, a voice note or a barcode — and flags the day before it becomes the pattern. Free on the App Store.