Dear Colleagues,

There is much to learn about how the consumption of free sugars affects human health, and this Special Issue invites you to participate in furthering this investigation.

In 2016, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) received a mandate from five European countries (Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden) to provide a dietary reference value (DRV) for dietary sugars. As a member of the expert working group, I was involved in this work, which was reported in December 2021. An early decision was to include ‘Free Sugars’ as an outcome, as this seemed to be the best working definition of the type of sugars that may be harmful to human health.

We carried out a careful systematic review of the literature but found that the available data did not allow us to set a safe level of intake for dietary sugars. Based on the randomised controlled trials that met our inclusion criteria, we identified positive relationships between the intake of added and free sugars and the risk of obesity, dyslipidaemia, type 2 diabetes mellitus, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease and hypertension in the general population. We confirmed the established relationship between the intake of dietary sugars and the development of dental caries.

We had access through EFSA to food composition and consumption data from many European countries covering all age groups of the population. As part of the study, data on free sugars intake were added to this database. The food groups contributing most to the intake of free sugars were table sugar and confectionery, sugar-sweetened beverages, fruit juices and baked goods. In children, sweetened milk and dairy products contributed as well.

Many articles have shown that there is a tendency towards nutrient dilution in the highest consumers of free sugars, but few have been able to link this to health outcomes. There is also a lack of studies presenting successful interventions to reduce the intake of free sugars, although some countries now have policies that require manufacturers to reduce the amount of free sugars added to their products.

This Special Issue welcomes articles that expand our knowledge about the relationship between free sugars consumption and health outcomes, as well as interventions that will help people to reduce their intake of free sugars.

Dr. Pauline Emmett
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Nutrients is an international peer-reviewed open access semimonthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2900 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

• free sugars
• non-milk extrinsic sugars
• added sugars
• nutrient dilution
• cardio-metabolic risk factors
• obesity
• interventions
• nutrient deficiency
• energy dense nutrient poor foods