From your teeth to your metabolism, health experts say the real issue is not the occasional sweet treat — but the habits repeated over time.
Seen Here: Mbali Mapholi, Canderel Partner Dietitian, is urging South Africans to look beyond occasional indulgences and pay closer attention to their everyday sugar habits, highlighting the importance of balanced nutrition, informed choices and long-term health. Photo Credit: Supplied
JOHANNESBURG, 14 September 2026 — Sugar rarely arrives with a warning. It is poured into morning coffee, hidden in drinks, added to snacks and served as part of everyday meals — often becoming a routine before people realise how frequently they are consuming it.
The question, therefore, is not whether sugar is inherently “bad”, but what happens when foods and drinks high in free sugars become a regular part of the diet.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), free sugars include sugars added to foods and beverages by manufacturers, cooks or consumers, as well as sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit-juice concentrates. WHO recommends limiting free-sugar consumption to less than 10% of daily energy intake, with a further reduction to 5% or less offering additional health benefits.
For Mbali Mapholi, Canderel Partner Dietitian, the most useful way to understand sugar is to look at dietary patterns rather than isolated foods.
“The body doesn’t experience our diet as isolated meals,” says Mapholi. “It responds to what we consistently eat and drink over weeks, months and years. That’s why it is important to understand patterns rather than focus on one food.”
Sugar can add energy without adding much nutrition
Sugar provides energy, but foods and beverages high in added or free sugars can contribute significant calories without necessarily providing the vitamins, minerals, fibre and other nutrients found in more nutrient-dense foods.
When total energy intake consistently exceeds the body’s needs, this can contribute to unhealthy weight gain.
That does not mean sugar alone determines body weight.
Genetics, physical activity, overall dietary patterns, sleep, lifestyle and other factors all influence weight and metabolic health.
The important distinction is between blaming a single ingredient and recognising the cumulative effect of everyday choices.
WHO notes that higher free-sugar consumption contributes to the energy density of diets and can increase the risk of unhealthy weight gain.
Your blood glucose is supposed to rise
Eating carbohydrates that contain sugars causes blood glucose levels to rise. The body responds by releasing insulin, which helps glucose move from the bloodstream into cells where it can be used for energy or stored.
That process is normal.
The concern is not that eating something sweet once suddenly “damages” blood glucose. Rather, metabolic health reflects a much broader picture involving overall dietary intake, physical activity, body composition and genetics.
For people trying to improve their diet, understanding how much free sugar is regularly consumed can nevertheless be an important part of making informed choices about energy and carbohydrate intake.
Your teeth may be paying attention
One of the clearest links between regular free-sugar consumption and health is dental caries — or tooth decay.
WHO identifies free sugars as the most common dietary risk factor for dental caries, one of the world’s most prevalent noncommunicable diseases. When bacteria in dental plaque metabolise free sugars, they produce acids that can progressively damage tooth enamel and other hard tissues.
This makes frequency particularly relevant.
“The sugar conversation is often dominated by calories and weight,” says Mapholi. “But oral health is one of the strongest reasons to pay attention to how often free sugars are consumed. Your teeth are responding to repeated exposure too.”
WHO recommends keeping free sugars below 10% of total energy intake and says limiting them to below 5% may further reduce the risk of dental caries.
The bigger picture is metabolic health
A consistently high intake of free sugars can contribute to excessive energy consumption and unhealthy weight gain. Excess weight, in turn, is associated with a range of noncommunicable diseases.
This is why nutrition experts increasingly focus on the overall dietary pattern rather than treating sugar as an isolated villain.
A fizzy drink does not automatically make someone unhealthy, just as a single slice of cake does not determine a person’s long-term health.
But when highly sweetened foods and drinks become everyday staples, their cumulative contribution can become significant.
WHO specifically recommends reducing free-sugar consumption across the life course as part of preventing unhealthy weight gain and diet-related disease.
What about sugar and your skin?
Social media has helped turn sugar into a popular explanation for everything from acne to premature ageing.
The reality is considerably more nuanced.
Some research has suggested associations between high-glycaemic dietary patterns and acne in some people, but it would be an oversimplification to claim that sugar directly causes acne in everyone.
Nutrition rarely works through a single food or ingredient.
A balanced diet containing a variety of nutrient-rich foods remains a more useful foundation for overall health than focusing on one ingredient in isolation.
Sweeteners are not a magic solution
For people looking to reduce their intake of added sugar while retaining a sweet taste, low- or no-calorie sweeteners can be one possible substitution.
But they should not be presented as a shortcut to weight loss or a replacement for a healthy dietary pattern.
WHO’s 2023 guideline recommends against using non-sugar sweeteners specifically for long-term weight control or reducing the risk of noncommunicable diseases. The recommendation is conditional and is intended to be considered alongside broader healthy-diet guidance.
The message, therefore, is less about replacing one sweet taste with another and more about gradually reducing reliance on sweetness overall.
Awareness, not food fear
Reducing sugar does not require eliminating every dessert, refusing every sweet treat or developing an anxious relationship with food.
Instead, it starts with awareness.
How often are sugar-sweetened drinks consumed? How much sugar is being added to everyday meals and beverages? Are highly sweetened snacks a daily habit or an occasional choice?
Small, sustainable changes can make a difference when they are repeated consistently.
“The goal isn’t perfection,” says Mapholi. “It’s understanding what your everyday choices are doing and deciding which changes make sense for you.”
That may mean drinking more water instead of a sugary beverage, choosing less-sweetened foods, checking nutrition labels, reducing the amount of sugar added to tea or coffee, or simply becoming more conscious of how frequently sweet foods and drinks appear throughout the day.
It is the pattern that matters
The most important lesson about sugar may be one of perspective.
Health is rarely determined by a single meal, a single dessert or a single decision.
It is shaped by patterns.
And while sugar itself does not need to become the enemy, regularly consuming large amounts of free sugar can have consequences — particularly for energy intake, weight management and oral health.
So the next time you reach for something sweet, the better question may not be “Is sugar bad?”
It may simply be:
“How often is this part of my everyday life — and is that habit working for my health?”
