Most of the sugar we eat is hidden sugar and while a little is nice, it is at times such as Easter that  we can go well above the recommended guidelines!

80% of adults in Ireland will give an Easter Egg as a present to children. Most children will have more than 1 egg this holiday. While we are not trying to be spoil sports, we have to advise some caution! 

The current advice is to limit your added sugar intake to 10% or less of calories a day. When you break that down it means that you shouldn't have more than about 70g (17.5spoons) of sugar for men and 50g (12.5 spoons) for women per day, although this will vary according to factors such as size, age and how active people are. 

Children, depending on their size, are less than 50g per day, with the World Health Organisation now saying we should halve that figure again! 

While 70g or 50g seems like quite a big amount - you would never sit down and eat 70g of raw sugar! - remember that it is hidden in the food you eat! Especially at Easter, when eggs are a plenty. You can see by the grams/spoons of sugar in each of the eggs below, that we are already over our recommended total daily intake.

Unfortunately these figures don't read well on a mobile device! 


To calculate the amount of sugar in the Eggs you buy:
Look for the "of which Sugars" line, and take the figure under the "per 100g" column. Divide this figure by 4, and then multiply by the weight of the egg. 
For example: Egg contains 58.7g of sugar per 100g, divided by 4 gives you 14.6 spoons of sugar per 100g. The egg weighs 304g, so multiply your 14.6 by 3 (3 x 100g = weight) which gives you 43.8 spoons of sugar in that egg. 

How many Easter Eggs are you giving this year?

In 2014 the average number of eggs each adult gave away was 3.

According to Repak, over 17 MILLION eggs were sold last year! In the same survey, it was concluded that:

• We will consume enough calories over the Easter Break to run 411,868 marathons
• 80 per cent of adults plan to give Easter eggs to someone over this Easter
• The average number of eggs people plan to give is three
• 60 per cent of people in Ulster and Connaught will give over four eggs

However, we’re not so brilliant at recycling! Repak wants us to sort out our waste over the break.

Irish households generated nearly 40,000 tonnes of used packaging in Easter 2013 – but Easter egg packaging still only accounts for less than 2 per cent (500 tonnes) of all packaging consumed over Easter.

With this in mind, Repak are encouraging consumers to recycle their packaging waste over the holiday period