Healthy Food America is helping to energize a national movement to address the excessive amount of sugar marketed to Americans. Here’s why:

Added sugars can harm your health. People who consume 12–30 teaspoons per day, compared to those who consume less, increase their risk of dying from heart disease by nearly one third. And eating even more increases the risk nearly three-fold.[i] On average, Americans eat 23 teaspoons of added sugars a day, placing them at risk for heart problems.[ii]

Sugar occurs naturally in some foods, but manufacturers add tons of extra sugar—under dozens of different names—to our food supply every day. In fact, you’ll find added sugar in 68% of packaged foods and beverages sold in the US.[iii]

Americans consume about 76 pounds of added sugars per person every year.[iv]


The 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans calls for limiting added sugars consumption to less than 10% of calories per day, about 12 teaspoons.

The vast majority of our kids fail to meet this recommendation. Fully 88% of adolescents consume 10% or more of their calories from added sugars per day.[v] Children consume 50-70% more added sugars than is recommended.[vi]

Soda and other sugary drinks—energy, sports and fruit drinks, and sweetened teas—account for about half (46%) of the added sugars we consume.

Drinking just one to two 12-oz sodas per day can increase your risk of developing diabetes by 26% and the risk of developing hypertension by 12%.[vii]Worldwide, more than 184,000 deaths a year can be traced to sugary drinks, a Tufts University study found.[viii]

More than 1 in 3 US adults has pre-diabetes, which can increase the risk of developing type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and stroke:[ix]

• 40% of all children and over 50% of African American and Latino children are predicted to develop diabetes in their lifetimes.[x]

Half of US adults and two-thirds of youth consume at least one sugary drink per day. Among toddlers (age 13-24 months), 31% consume at least one sugary drink a day.[xi],[xii]

Adolescents and adults consume 241 and 283 calories per day respectively from these beverages.[xiii] Preschoolers on average consume nearly 100 calories a day from these drinks.[xiv]

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