Hot drinks causing excessive sugar intake
A new survey by the Oral Health Foundation has revealed that one in seven British adults exceed their advised daily sugar intake from hot drinks.
The research found that British adults drink on average four cups of tea and/or coffee per day, with 3 in 10 adults drinking five or more cups every day. 31% of British adults surveyed added sugar to each cup of tea and coffee they drink, with 16% adding one teaspoon of sugar, 12% adding two teaspoons of sugar, and 3% adding more than three teaspoons to every cup.
With each teaspoon containing 4g of sugar, this could mean that those who have two or more teaspoons of sugar would be exceeding sugar intake recommendations laid out by the NHS in tea and coffee alone, which states that added sugars should not make up more than 5% of total calorie intake – about 30g of sugar a day.
Going by the average of four cups of tea or coffee a day, if each had one teaspoon of sugar, it could make up half of a person’s daily recommended intake.
Over a one-year period, this would add up to nearly 10,000g of sugar, or 35 cups full.
“It might be easy to overlook tea and coffee habits when considering how much sugar we have, but given the amount of it we drink, there is a danger that we are consuming too much sugar far too frequently”, commented Dr Nigel Carter OBE, CEO of the Oral Health Foundation.
“We would advise anybody to try cut out added sugar from tea and coffee, either by having it as it comes, or by adding sweetener,” he continued. “If you really need that sugar hit from your hot beverages, then try reducing your consumption of them to mealtimes, so the amount exposure to sugar is limited.”
