Daily sugar intake should not exceed 50 grams; the Health Promotion Administration's draft nutrition benchmarks add an upper limit
The Health Promotion Administration of the Ministry of Health and Welfare announced the latest completed revision of the "National Nutrition Standards Revision Draft," in which the dietary guidelines, national dietary indicators, daily dietary guidelines and other standards have all been slightly adjusted. The HPA also added a "sugar intake upper limit" to the national dietary indicators for the first time, stating that added sugar intake should not exceed 10% of total calories: "If a person's total daily calorie intake is 2000 kcal, sugar intake should not exceed 200 kcal, and the daily sugar intake in grams should best be controlled within 50 grams." This is to avoid consuming too many calories.
For example, a 290 c.c. carton of flavored milk contains more than 30 grams of sugar, a "President O' Large Pudding" contains 28.4 grams of sugar, and a can of juice that is only 10% juice while the rest is sugar water - a "juice" drink at 450c.c. per can has 42 grams of sugar, close to the daily upper limit for sugar intake in grams.
US: Sugar intake should not exceed 10% of total daily calories; WHO: 5% is even better
Lin Liru, director of the HPA Community Nutrition Division, said that dietary standards such as the dietary guidelines, national dietary indicators, and daily dietary guidelines are revised roughly every five or six years, "and this year all indicators were revised with reference to international standards." As for sugar intake, the latest 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend that sugar intake should not exceed 10% of total daily calories; the World Health Organization WHO also made the same recommendation in March 2015, and even believes that "if sugar intake calories can be controlled at 5% of total calories, that would be even better."
Lin Liru explained that for an adult male with a daily calorie requirement of 2000 kcal, the recommended intake of added sugar accounting for 10% of total calorie intake means 200 kcal of sugar in daily food; and sugar has 4 kcal of calories per gram, "after conversion, 200 kcal is about 50 grams of sugar."
John Tung Foundation: Children are prone to "sugar addiction," which affects body and mind
In response, John Tung Foundation dietitian You Xuanwen warned in a past interview that if children often eat foods high in sugar from a young age, it will affect their future eating habits, "not only may it cause obesity and cardiovascular disease, but it may also lead to problems such as emotional agitation and poor concentration." Hsu Hui-yu, director of the John Tung Foundation Nutrition Center, also once said that the younger the age, the more easily sugar intake leads to "sugar addiction": "Not eating sugar makes you depressed, and after eating sugar and blood sugar spikes, you become hyperactive again." This causes large emotional swings.
Hsu Hui-yu reminded that the sugar in natural foods such as fruit is less likely to burden the body, "because at the same time you also take in other vitamins and minerals, which helps balance things." And eating fruit involves slow chewing, so it will not cause dramatic blood sugar fluctuations.
Now encouraging "less sugar intake," Hsu Hui-yu said that last month the John Tung Foundation held a "14 Days of Good Habits - Healthy Child Ambassador Selection" activity in elementary schools, encouraging students to drink plain water, finish their vegetables, eat whole grains, and exercise for 30 minutes, with the finals expected to be held in early July.
In addition, Hsu Hui-yu said that the John Tung Foundation is also compiling a "Sugar Reduction Drinks" handbook under the guidance and assistance of the Ministry of Education, and is expected to open "sugar reduction classes" at major colleges and universities across Taiwan, China. It is currently in the planning stage, and the Ministry of Education will hold briefing sessions at major colleges and universities before August.
"In fact, the HPA originally was already promoting drinking more plain water and reducing intake of sugary drinks." Lin Liru said that it will continue to promote this in the future and have relevant professionals give the public similar dietary advice.
Health Promotion Administration: Expected to be announced to the public by the end of the year
In addition to adding the "sugar intake upper limit," Lin Liru pointed out that this revision has several other major points, including: setting 1 serving of vegetables and fruit at about 100 grams, to help the public check their own number of servings; changing "beans, fish, meat, eggs" to "beans, fish, eggs, meat," recommending that the public consume protein with relatively lower cholesterol; changing the "low-fat dairy" category to "dairy"; and changing the "whole grains and root vegetables" category to "whole grains and mixed grains."
Lin Liru said that more than twenty meetings have been held for this revision of the dietary standards, the draft has now been announced, and four public hearings will be held in July this year in the north, central, south, and east regions respectively. "If there is not much controversy at the public hearings, it is expected to be announced to the public before the end of this year."
"But of course the public can start paying attention to their own daily dietary intake right now." Lin Liru reminded that people do not necessarily have to wait until the announcement comes out before following it. "Right now, when buying food, you can pay attention to nutrition labels to avoid taking in too much sugar."