Key Nutritional Recommendations on Sugars

Over the past 40 years, the greatest public health concern globally has shifted from fat to sugar. The current guidelines are based on many years of research and debate. In this presentation, John Sievenpiper focuses on the three most current and authoritative guidelines, from the WHO, the USDA and SACN (UK).

All three recommend reducing sugar intake to less than 10 per cent of daily energy intake. He looks at the different study processes behind the creation of the guidelines, which all look at outcomes in terms of body weight/obesity and dental caries.  He believes there are several challenges in the translation of the guidelines including a lack of harmonization, a lack of control for energy, a lack of comparative risk assessment and excessive reductionism which together lead to unintended consequences.

“Low-fat” does not necessarily mean “low-calorie”, as the fat is usually taken out and replaced by sugars and refined starches. There needs to be a shift away from nutrient-centric guidelines to focus on food and dietary pattern-based guidelines. This will put more emphasis on real food rather than giving an absolute upper limit or cut-off point for certain macro-nutrients.