30,000 Dutch people try a week free of sugar

"On average, every day we receive 1.5 to 2 times more sugar than it is good for us. Often without being aware of it by adding sugars to products," says Hanneke Dessing, general manager of the Diabetes Foundation .

Half of the adults in the Netherlands are overweight and therefore have an increased risk of type 2 diabetes. In this type, the body no longer responds well to insulin, the hormone regulating the level of sugar in the blood. Insulin is, as it was, invisible and can not do its job.

More than 1 million people have this form of diabetes and a thousand are added weekly, according to the Diabetes Fund.

The participants in the challenge received the appropriate digital magazine. It contains recipes, shopping lists, tips, questionnaires and lots of information about sugary foods.

According to a WHO World Health Organization recommendation, an adult woman can receive 50 grams of free daily sugars, a male 60 grams. Free sugars are all sugars added by the producer and all sugars from honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit concentrate.

A sugar cube is equal to 4 grams of sugar. Therefore, an adult woman has the right to consume 12.5 cubic cubs of free sugar daily, as recommended by the WHO. A man is allowed more, that is 15 cubes of sugar. This is because men have a higher energy requirement.

According to the Diabetes Fund, the Dutch are far above that. "We eat about 20 cubes of sugars a day. That's 30 pounds of free sugar per year."