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Guidelines to lower intake of added sugar are necessary and justified

Nature Reviews Cardiology volume 19, pages 569–570 (2022)Cite this article

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The lowering of dietary recommendations for the consumption of free or added sugar from 25% to 10% of daily calories has been criticized as being based on low-quality scientific evidence, ill-informed opinions and over-extrapolation of results from studies on sugar-sweetened beverages. This Comment rebuts these criticisms.

In 2015, the US Dietary Guidelines changed the recommended upper limit for the intake of added sugar from 25% of daily energy to <10% of daily energy. This change, and the similar WHO recommendation to reduce the dietary intake of free sugar, has been1 and continues to be criticized for being enacted on the basis of inadequate scientific evidence2,3.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Molecular Biosciences, School of Veterinary Medicine, University of California – Davis, Davis, CA, USA

    Kimber L. Stanhope

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  1. Kimber L. Stanhope
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Correspondence to Kimber L. Stanhope.

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Competing interests

K.L.S. has received honoraria for speaking from numerous organizations (since 2016: American Diabetes Association, Columbia University, Harvard School of Medicine, Swedish Medical Center and University of Missouri) and from CrossFit for serving as academic organizer of a 2017 conference and lead author of the conference summary report.

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Stanhope, K.L. Guidelines to lower intake of added sugar are necessary and justified. Nat Rev Cardiol 19, 569–570 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-022-00750-5

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