Is added sugar safe during pregnancy?

What does the evidence say about added sugar during pregnancy?

1. The Daily Value for added sugars is 50 grams a day, based on a 2,000 calorie daily diet. 1
2. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommend limiting calories from added sugars to less than 10 percent of total calories per day. On a 2,000 calorie diet that is 200 calories, or 50 grams. 1
3. There is no Daily Value for total sugars at all, because no recommendation has been made for the total amount to eat in a day. That is why the numbers you see quoted online conflict with each other. 1
4. Added sugars are those put in during processing plus syrups, honey, and concentrated fruit or vegetable juices. They exclude sugars occurring naturally in milk, fruit, and vegetables, so whole fruit does not count against the number. 1
5. Among pregnant women, each additional 12-ounce sugar-sweetened drink a day was associated with 124 more calories and a 2.3 point drop in diet quality score, and non-consumers scored 52.6 on diet quality against 39.7 for those drinking two or more daily. 2

Is added sugar safe in each trimester?

• First trimester. Sugary foods are sometimes the only thing that stays down, and getting calories in matters more than the composition right now. Nausea passes. This is not the trimester to fight over dessert.
• Second trimester. Glucose screening usually falls between 24 and 28 weeks, so this is when many people start paying attention. Sweetened drinks are the largest single source of added sugar for most Americans.
• Third trimester. If a glucose screen came back high, your care team will give you targets specific to you, and those replace general population advice entirely. Follow theirs, not this page.