Free sugar
Encyclopedia
Free sugar is defined by the World Health Organization
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that acts as a coordinating authority on international public health. Established on 7 April 1948, with headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, the agency inherited the mandate and resources of its predecessor, the Health...

 and the US Food and Agriculture Organization
Food and Agriculture Organization
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is a specialised agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger. Serving both developed and developing countries, FAO acts as a neutral forum where all nations meet as equals to negotiate agreements and...

 in multiple reports as "all monosaccharides and disaccharides added to foods by the manufacturer, cook or consumer, plus sugars naturally present in honey, syrups and fruit juices". It is used to distinguish between the sugars that are naturally present in fully unrefined carbohydrates such as brown rice, wholewheat pasta, fruit, etc. and those sugars (or carbohydrates) that have been, to some extent, refined (normally by humans but sometimes by animals, such as the free sugars present in honey). They are referred to as "sugars" since they cover multiple chemical forms, including sucrose
Sucrose
Sucrose is the organic compound commonly known as table sugar and sometimes called saccharose. A white, odorless, crystalline powder with a sweet taste, it is best known for its role in human nutrition. The molecule is a disaccharide composed of glucose and fructose with the molecular formula...

, glucose
Glucose
Glucose is a simple sugar and an important carbohydrate in biology. Cells use it as the primary source of energy and a metabolic intermediate...

, dextrose, etc.

Usage

The principal definition of free sugars was to split the term "carbohydrate
Carbohydrate
A carbohydrate is an organic compound with the empirical formula ; that is, consists only of carbon, hydrogen, and oxygen, with a hydrogen:oxygen atom ratio of 2:1 . However, there are exceptions to this. One common example would be deoxyribose, a component of DNA, which has the empirical...

" into elements that relate more directly to the impact on health rather than a chemical definition, and followed on from meta-studies relating to chronic disease, obesity and dental decay. It also led to the WHO and FAO to publish a revised food pyramid
Food pyramid
Food pyramid may refer to:*Food guide pyramid, a core concept in nutritional guides around the world.**MyPyramid, the USDA's 2005 version of the food guide pyramid.**MyPlate, replaces the MyPyramid and was introduced by the USDA in 2011....

 that splits up the classic food groups into more health-directed groups, which appears, as of yet, to have had little impact on the food pyramid
Food pyramid
Food pyramid may refer to:*Food guide pyramid, a core concept in nutritional guides around the world.**MyPyramid, the USDA's 2005 version of the food guide pyramid.**MyPlate, replaces the MyPyramid and was introduced by the USDA in 2011....

s in use around the World.
The inclusion of such a definition caused issues for the WHO with sugar companies, who attempted to get the US government to remove funding from the WHO for suggesting that consumption of free sugars within the food pyramid
Food pyramid
Food pyramid may refer to:*Food guide pyramid, a core concept in nutritional guides around the world.**MyPyramid, the USDA's 2005 version of the food guide pyramid.**MyPlate, replaces the MyPyramid and was introduced by the USDA in 2011....

should only amount to a maximum of 10% of the total energy intake, and that there should be no minimum (i.e. there is no requirement for any free sugars in the human diet) on the basis that the report did not take into account the evidence supplied by the sugar industry. The report in question specifically includes references to the evidence, but was unable to use it for a health basis because the way the studies were set up did not offer effective evidence of an impact on health, and referred to such studies as "limited".
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