Six teaspoons
That is where the WHO draws the sugar line for a whole day. Not for one cup of chai.
Where the WHO draws the line
The World Health Organization, the WHO, gives one clear rule. Keep sugar under one tenth of the energy you eat in a day. For an adult who eats about 2,000 calories, that is 50 grams. Twelve level teaspoons.
Then the WHO says something better. Get under 25 grams, six teaspoons, and your body is even better protected.
Your body does not need added sugar at all. These are ceilings, not targets. Below them is better, and none is fine.
Smaller people eat less, so their line is lower. Women often sit below the 50 gram line. A child is smaller again, so a child's line is lower.
Why does the WHO care? Too much sugar rots teeth and makes the body carry weight it does not need. Other health bodies also link too much sugar to type 2 diabetes.
Which sugar counts?
Sugar that was put into food. By a factory. By a cook. By your own hand at the table. Honey and syrup count. Fruit juice counts too, even the pure kind. Squeezing lets the sugar out of the fruit.
Whole fruit does not count. Plain milk does not count. Plain maize, beans and rice do not count. Eat the mango.
The sugar you add yourself
In most of Africa the biggest sugar is not on a label. It is in the spoon.
Chai with two spoons is two teaspoons. Four cups is eight. Your day is nearly gone and you have not eaten a thing yet.
Then there is uji with sugar. Mandazi. Sugarcane juice at the bus stop. The tea flask at work, already sweet before you get to it.
So your first sum is your own spoon. Count the cups for one day. Then see how far below the line you can get. This is not to blame you. It is only to show you the number.
One sum to remember
grams ÷ 4 = teaspoons. Every label gives you grams. Divide by four and you have spoons, which your hand already understands.
How to read a label
- Find the word sugars. It sits under carbohydrate.
- Check if the number is per 100 grams or for one helping (a serving). Per 100 grams on a 400 gram packet means multiply by four.
- The company chooses the serving size, not you. One bottle can be two servings.
- Sugar hides under other names in the ingredients list: glucose, fructose, syrup, invert sugar, malt extract, fruit concentrate. These are all sugar. Split across four names, it looks smaller than it is.
- No label? Then there is no number. Much of the food sold in Africa comes with none. If it tastes sweet, someone put sugar in it.
| Small soda, 300 ml | about 32 g | 8 teaspoons |
| Big soda, 500 ml | about 53 g | 13 teaspoons |
| Chai, two spoons | 8 g | 2 teaspoons |
One big soda is a whole day of sugar, and a bit more, gone in five minutes. It brings the sugar and nothing your body needs. Check your own bottle. Brands differ.
Why this is not your fault
Sugar is put into food on purpose, at a level that makes you want more. Companies pay good money to find that level. Then they put it in the bread, the sauce, some yoghurt sold as healthy, and some porridge mixed for babies.
So if your day's sugar is gone by ten in the morning, you did not fail. The food was built to do that. The answer is to know the number before you buy, and to ask why it is not printed on the packet.
What you can do today
- Count your chai spoons for one day. Just count. No need to change anything yet.
- Check the three things you buy every week. Not everything. Three.
- Check sweet drinks first. They carry the most sugar and fill you the least.
- Show this page to one person. The number does more good shared than kept.
Take this page. Print it, translate it, teach from it, put it up in your clinic. It is free, and it stays free. Download the free PDF.
Sweet Lies is a novel about a woman, the sugar company she works for, and what the sugar was doing inside her own family. The story is at sweetlies.life.
This is general information, not medical advice. If you live with diabetes, or you are pregnant, your doctor's numbers come first. You may copy and share this page freely under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence. Just say where it came from: Six teaspoons, by Ndirangu Wanjuki, from sweetlies.life, licensed CC BY 4.0. Sweet Lies™.