While the American Heart Association recommends that your daily intake of sugar be no more than 10% of your total daily calories, the World Heath Organization actually has recently stated that is should be only 5% of your daily caloric intake. The chart below is a great tool to help you understand how much 10% really is. Shoot for less though (as recommended by WHO) to avoid the negative effects of sugar such as the risk of diabetes and heart disease, weight gain, premature aging, mental fogginess, the feeding of cancer cells, and even arthritis.

The average American adult is consuming over 20 teaspoons of sugar a day, and the average American child is being given an average of 19 teaspoons of sugar each day – that’s 6x what is recommended by the AHA!

Make it a point to stick with natural sugars found in fruit and vegetables and avoid or limit all the added sugars. Your body and mind will thank you for it!