October 2024
If you or someone you know has diabetes, you may be quite familiar with the idea that diabetics need to watch their sugar intake. But what about everyone else? Can eating too much sugar increase your risk of diabetes? Or do you only need to worry about your sugar intake if you’re diagnosed with diabetes?
Learn more about how sugar increases your risk of developing diabetes, how much sugar you can eat, and whether you need to worry about the naturally occurring sugars in fruits and fruit juices.
Are all types of diabetes preventable?
Unfortunately, not all types of diabetes are preventable. Type 1 diabetes is caused by genetics and unknown factors that trigger the onset of the disease. With type 1 diabetes, the pancreas stops producing insulin — or doesn’t make enough of it to process the normal sugar in your diet.
On the other hand, you can reduce your risk of developing type 2 diabetes with diet and lifestyle changes.
What’s the connection between sugar consumption and your risk of developing diabetes?
Here’s what we know about the connection between sugar intake and diabetes.
If you eat more sugar, you’ll weigh more (all other things being equal). Being overweight or obese is in itself a risk factor for diabetes. The more sugar you eat, the more likely you are to be overweight or obese.
More sugar is associated with a greater risk of developing diabetes. Researchers are still exploring and debating the reasons why, but the pattern is consistent: People who consume more sugar are more at risk of developing diabetes, obesity, and heart disease. And when the average sugar consumption in a country goes up, so does the prevalence of these health problems.
Drinking even one soda per day increases your risk of developing metabolic syndrome in middle age. Metabolic syndrome (including the elevated blood sugar levels found in prediabetes) greatly increases your risk of developing diabetes.
How much added sugar can you eat?
Fortunately, sugar and other sweeteners that are added to prepared foods — like honey, high-fructose corn syrup, and maple syrup — are not essential nutrients. That said, many people like to have a sweet treat now and then. The trick is to consume them in moderation.
The American Heart Association (AHA) recommends limiting added sugar to no more than 6% of your daily caloric intake. If you eat roughly 2,000 calories per day, that’s 120 calories (30 grams, or just under eight teaspoons of sugar). If you’re unsure of how many calories you consume per day, the AHA suggests limiting daily added sugar to no more than 150 calories (36 grams or 9 teaspoons) for men, and no more than 100 calories (25 grams or 6 teaspoons) for women.
Nutrition labels are required to disclose how many grams of added sugar a product contains. The added sugar may be different from the total sugars because some foods, for example milk and fruit, contain naturally occurring sugars.
Be sure to count calories (or grams) of added sugar from beverages as well as from food.
If you’ve been diagnosed with diabetes or prediabetes, and your doctor has given you a lower target for sugar consumption than what’s listed above, go with your doctor’s advice!
What about the sugar in fruit and 100% fruit juices?
Researchers aren’t concerned about the sugar in fresh fruits, since they aren’t nearly as concentrated as the sugars in processed foods with added sugars. Plus, they come packaged with lots of healthy fiber that slows down blood sugar spikes and prevents overconsumption. In fact, a large study of adults in China found that people who ate more fresh fruit had a lower chance of developing diabetes — and those with diabetes who ate more fresh fruit were less at risk of dying from the disease.
On the other hand, opinions are mixed about the impact of 100% fruit juices. That’s because the naturally occurring sugar is much more concentrated in juice, the fiber is removed from the fruit, and it’s far easier to overconsume juice (compared to fresh fruit). The American Diabetes Association recommends drinking water, unsweetened tea or coffee, and other low-calorie, low sugar beverages. If you really want that fruit juice, the ADA advises that you make sure it doesn’t have any added sugar — and keep your portion size small. A four-ounce glass of 100% fruit juice has 60 calories — all from fruit sugars!
