How to Find Soft Drinks With Less Than 20 Grams of Sugar a Serving

Why 20 grams of sugar is a useful line to draw

Twenty grams of sugar works out to around five teaspoons, which already gives you a sense of scale next to your morning coffee or tea. A lot of regular soft drinks carry well over that in a single serving, sometimes more than double, which is exactly why checking the actual number matters more than trusting the can's colour scheme or a vague "refreshing" label.

This is not about banning sugar from your life. It is about having one simple number to check quickly instead of guessing based on how a drink looks or is marketed. The food archive hub has more of these practical, no-drama label checks if this is a useful habit for you.

It also helps to know what you are comparing against. A regular can of most sugary soft drinks can carry closer to 35 to 40 grams of sugar, which puts 20 grams roughly in the middle of the range rather than as an extreme cut. That makes it a realistic target instead of an all-or-nothing rule.

Categories of drinks that tend to fall under that line

• Diet or zero-sugar versions of regular soft drinks, which are usually sweetened with non-sugar sweeteners instead.
• Plain or lightly flavoured sparkling water, which often carries no sugar at all.
• Unsweetened iced tea, which depends entirely on the brand but can be a genuinely low-sugar option.
• Some lighter kombucha or fermented tea drinks, though these vary a lot and are worth checking individually.

None of these categories are a guarantee. They are simply more likely candidates worth checking first, rather than places you should assume are automatically safe.

Flavoured mineral waters are worth a special mention here, since some brands add a small amount of juice or sweetener for flavour, which can quietly push an otherwise sugar-free drink over the line. A quick label check settles the question far faster than reading the front of the bottle. For help placing soft drinks within an everyday fluid routine, see our Singapore hydration guide.

How to read the label so you're not guessing

Check the serving size first, since some labels quietly split one bottle into two servings, which can make the sugar number look smaller than what you will drink. Then look at the total sugars line specifically, not just the calories, since sugar is the number that matters most here.

Front-of-pack phrases like "no added sugar" or "naturally flavoured" describe the ingredients used, not the total sugar content, since some drinks get their sugar from concentrated fruit juice rather than table sugar and still end up high. If hydration and drink choices are a bigger focus for you day to day, the Hydration Planner is a useful companion tool.

It also helps to check the label once and remember it rather than re-reading it every single time. Once you know a particular bottle sits comfortably under 20 grams, you can grab it with confidence instead of treating every fridge stop like a fresh research project.

How to keep enjoying soft drinks while staying under 20 grams

You do not need to give up fizzy drinks to keep your sugar intake reasonable. You need a habit of flipping the can or bottle over before you buy it, checking the total sugars line against the whole serving, and treating the front-of-pack claims as a starting point rather than the final answer.

Once you know which two or three drinks in your usual rotation stay under that line, the rest gets easy. You are not scanning every label every time, just returning to the ones you already checked and trust. For more practical food and drink guides like this, browse the lifestyle hub for more everyday habits worth building.

Twenty grams is not a magic number, just a workable line that lets you keep the drinks you enjoy while trimming the ones that were adding far more sugar than the taste was really worth.