How much sugar is in a slice of cake?
About 35 g in a slice of chocolate cake — nearly nine sugar cubes, which is more than the 25 g the WHO says is the ideal daily ceiling, and most of a day's allowance in the app. Build the plate you had, or the one you are eyeing, and watch the cubes pile up. Six are the allowance. Where red begins is up to you.
An empty plate. Add the cake, the cookie, the spoon of jam.
Six cubes are the allowance; past your red line the day turns red. The app's Sugar jar starts at twelve, just under the WHO's 50 g.
All values are approximate — recipes vary by country and brand. Check the label on the packet. Whole fruit and plain milk carry natural sugars the WHO does not count as free sugars; they are shown, and said to be natural.
Where the numbers come from
Values are approximations of total sugar per typical serving, taken from USDA FoodData Central entries and typical manufacturer labels and rounded to the gram; recipes vary by country, bakery and brand, so treat them as honest ballparks and check your own packet. I count 1 sugar cube as 4 g, a teaspoon — the unit the WHO counts in. Its 2015 guideline is two numbers: free sugars under 10% of daily energy, about 50 g, as a strong recommendation; under 5%, about 25 g, as a conditional one. Whole fruit and plain milk carry intrinsic sugars the WHO does not count, so the calculator shows them but says which part is natural.
The two-step meter is the one in my No Treat Today app: six cubes of allowance, about 24 g, then a red line you set yourself in Settings › Sugar jar. The app starts that line at twelve cubes, 48 g, just under the WHO's strong limit, so nothing turns red until you decide it should.
Keep going
Track the bigger picture
Tools help in the moment. For the long haul, No Treat Today asks one question a day — too many treats? — and never resets you to zero. Free on iPhone.
