Freeze! Yes, you with the spoonful of sugar poised to dump into your eagerly awaiting mouth! The World Health Organization has just updated its guidelines for recommended daily sugar intake and well, it’s not leaving a lot of room in your caloric plans for sugar.

The WHO has halved its previous sugar intake recommendation in a new proposed draft of its guidelines, down to 5% of your total calories from 10%, reports the Associated Press.

A panel of exports sorted through around 9,000 studies to come up with its ideal level of sugar to combat obesity and cavities. Included under the sugar umbrella (sounds yummy!) are any added to foods and those in honey, syrup and fruit juices — but not any sugars that occur naturally in fruits.

If this 5% goal sounds like a hard row to hoe, you’re not the only one. Even the director of nutrition at WHO says this target is a somewhat loft one.

“We should aim for 5 percent if we can … but 10 percent is more realistic,” he admitted.

If you’re wondering how many sugar bowls you have to smash open and douse with water to make sure you don’t eat them — the average American’s sugar take would need to drop by about two-thirds to meet the WHO’s new suggested limit.

This isn’t set in stone yet, however — the WHO is asking the public to comment on its website about the proposal.

You can follow MBQ on Twitter as she struggles to limit her sugar intake to at least 50%: @marybethquirk

WHO: 5 percent of calories should be from sugar [Associated Press]

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