Added sugar
Added sugars or free sugars are sugar carbohydrates (caloric sweeteners) added to food and beverages at some point before their consumption.[1] These include added carbohydrates (monosaccharides and disaccharides), and more broadly, sugars naturally present in honey, syrup, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates.[2][3] They can take multiple chemical forms, including sucrose (table sugar), glucose (dextrose), and fructose.
Medical consensus holds that added sugars contribute little nutritional value to food,[1] leading to a colloquial description as "empty calories". Overconsumption of sugar is correlated with excessive calorie intake and increased risk of weight gain and various diseases.[1][4][5] Individuals who consume a 17%-21% of their daily calories from added sugar are reported to have a 38% higher risk of dying from cardiovascular disease compared to those who consume 8% of their daily calories from added sugar.[6]
Uses[edit]
United States[edit]
In the United States, added sugars may include sucrose or high-fructose corn syrup, both primarily composed of about half glucose and half fructose.[7] Other types of added sugar ingredients include beet and cane sugars, malt syrup, maple syrup, pancake syrup, fructose sweetener, liquid fructose, fruit juice concentrate, honey, and molasses.[7][8] The most common types of foods containing added sugars are sweetened beverages, including most soft drinks, and also desserts and sweet snacks,[4] which represent 20% of daily calorie consumption,[1] twice the recommendation of the World Health Organization (WHO).[1] Based on a 2012 study on the use of caloric and noncaloric sweeteners in some 85,000 food and beverage products, 74% of the products contained added sugar.[7][9]
Sweetened beverages[edit]
Sweetened beverages contain a syrup mixture of the monosaccharides glucose and fructose formed by hydrolytic saccharification of the disaccharide sucrose. The bioavailability of liquid carbohydrates is higher than in solid sugars, as characterized by sugar type and by the estimated rate of digestion.[10] There is evidence for a positive and causal relationship between excessive intake of fruit juices and increased risk of some chronic metabolic diseases.[3]