How Much Sugar Should People With Diabetes Have Per Day?

Since each person is different, how much sugar a person living with diabetes should have each day varies significantly. However, there are some general guidelines about sugar consumption. These rules can give you a sense of how much is too much for anyone. Only your healthcare provider, though, can give you an accurate answer about the grams of sugar you can safely consume in a day.

This article explains how sugar impacts glucose (blood sugar) levels, and it offers tips to identify sources of sugar, how much sugar a person with diabetes might consume, and how to work with your healthcare provider to stick to a diabetes-friendly diet.

How Much Sugar a Day Is Safe?

According to research results published in 2023, American adults average about 85 grams of added sugar in the diet per day. That's 13% of their calories, though less than 10% is recommended. Those percentages rise to more than 14% in young children (ages 2 to 8) and 16% in older children and teens (ages 9 through 18).

To put things in context, 4 grams of sugar equals 1 teaspoon (so 85 grams is more than 21 teaspoons). These numbers are way above the daily limits recommended by the American Heart Association (AHA):

• Men: 36 grams (9 teaspoons or 150 calories)
• Women: 25 grams (6 teaspoons or 100 calories)
• Children age 2 to 18: Less than 24 grams (6 teaspoons or 100 calories)
• Children under age 2: No added sugars recommended

If you have diabetes, your healthcare provider will probably advise that you eat even less sugar than this. In diabetes, your body doesn't properly use insulin, the hormone that helps you absorb blood sugar so it can be turned into energy or be stored for later. Unable to process the sugar, you develop high blood glucose (sugar) levels.

The exact amount of sugar that is safe to consume varies based on your specific situation. However, the American Diabetes Association (ADA) advises that people with diabetes avoid added sugars in beverages, limit foods made with added sugars, and replace them with healthier choices.

Risks of Too Much Sugar When You Have Diabetes

Eating too much sugar doesn't directly cause diabetes and its effects build up over time. But in those who are diagnosed with the condition, hyperglycemia can lead to more immediate and potentially life-threatening complications that include diabetic ketoacidosis and hyperglycemic hyperosmolar syndrome (HHS).

When a person with diabetes consumes too much sugar, many body parts, including the cells that produce insulin, are affected. Regularly having too much sugar will, over time, cause these cells to wear out, so your body won't be able to make insulin at all.

This leads to more inflammation. Eventually, this inflammation can damage the heart, blood vessels, nerves, eyes, and kidneys. 

Identifying Hidden Sugar

It's often hard to realize how much sugar is hidden in packaged foods and drinks. Even if you're disciplined about reading food labels, you may not be aware that sugar can go by another name.

Names to watch for on food labels (even when sugars are added to products like honey) include:

• Fructose
• Maltose (formed from glucose)
• Sucrose (glucose with fructose)

Glucose is the type of sugar used for energy by every cell of the body. But fructose is metabolized by the liver and small intestine. It can turn into a type of fat (triglycerides) that can increase insulin resistance and stimulate more insulin production. In the long term, this effect can cause fatty liver disease and other complications.

Other food labels may include molasses, rice syrup, agave nectar, and high fructose corn syrup (a contributing factor in metabolic diseases and even certain cancers).

These different types of sugar can have greater or lesser impacts on your blood sugar. The idea that "natural sugars" are better isn't necessarily true; both natural and processed sugars are broken down into glucose and fructose.

Common Sources of Added Sugars

There's lots of added sugar in cookies, sodas, jams, and sweetened breakfast cereals. Yet plenty of "healthy" foods have sugar, too. They may even contain more sugar.

Here are a few examples:

• Flavored yogurt: 26 grams per 6 ounces
• Granola bars: 7 to 12 grams per 70-gram bar
• Jarred spaghetti sauce: 11 grams per half-cup
• Peanut butter: 5 grams per tablespoon
• Protein bars: 23 to 30 grams per 80-gram bar
• Russian salad dressing: 3 grams per tablespoon
• Sweetened apple juice: 39 grams per 12 ounces
• Vanilla almond milk: 14 grams per cup

Many of these foods have sugar-free versions so you can enjoy them without worry. But don't confuse the terms "low fat" with "low sugar" or "no sugar added." Low-fat foods and natural ingredients can still have added sugars.

Tips for Cutting Down on Sugar

You consume sugars via carbohydrates. The two main forms of carbohydrates include:

• Simple carbohydrates, or simple sugars, which include fructose, glucose, and lactose
• Complex carbohydrates, known as starches that have three or more sugars linked together and are found in starchy vegetables, rice, bread, cereals, and whole grain

You can track your daily carb intake. Choose foods lower on the glycemic (GI) index. The GI index measures the impact that different foods have on your blood sugar.

The ADA recommends that people with diabetes eat low or medium GI carbohydrates, like fresh vegetables, whole grains, and legumes. Fresh fruits, such as bananas, can also be part of a diabetes-friendly diet, but they should be limited because they are high in natural sugars.

Even if you drink unsweetened juice, the amount of sugar in the juice or smoothie can have the same glycemic impact as a can of soda. At 12 ounces, that's 10 teaspoons of sugar, or 160 calories.

Calculating Your Daily Allowance

If you have diabetes, it's important to work with your healthcare provider to determine what your daily sugar intake should be.

For a person who doesn't have diabetes, 50 grams of sugar daily within a 2,000-calorie-a-day diet may be acceptable. Although, the World Health Organization (WHO) recommends half of that.

If you're managing diabetes, the exact amount of how much sugar you should consume depends on several factors. For instance, your healthcare provider will help you to make adjustments if you are diagnosed with obesity and need to cut calories or if you are underweight and need an increase.

Summary

Having diabetes doesn't mean that you can never eat sugar again. However, it does mean that you must be aware of hidden sugars and what percentage of your daily calories should come from sugar. This will involve reading food labels, choosing high-fiber, low-sugar carbs, and making deliberate food choices to manage your blood sugar levels.