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Are there any ill effects from eating one normally size candy bar per day over a long period of time, as part of an otherwise well-balanced diet for an active adult?
For example, a Twix bar with:
Twix is part of an otherwise healthy diet.
According to the American Heart Association the limit is 36 grams of sugar. That is 2/3 of the recommended maximum in one little bar.
That one little bar is 35% of the recommended saturated fat for the day.
You would need an otherwise perfect diet to balance out. People with an otherwise perfect diet just don't have a craving for a Twix. I seriously doubt what you are characterizing as well-balanced diet is a perfect diet other than the Twix.
If you have a craving for something sweet then a 1-2 sweet fruits is part of a healthy diet.
It's harmful, because what passes for the rest of the so-called "well-balanced diet" isn't actually all that healthy either, it will also contain a fair amount of sugar, and saturated fats and also unsaturated fats which are healthier than saturated fats but not healthy in an absolute sense. So, what passes for a healthy, well-balanced diet is a diet that isn't too bad, but certainly not the most healthy diet you can imagine. This should be considered to be a compromise between what is extremely healthy and what the general public can be convinced to stick to.
If you then further compromise on this by getting about 10% more of your calories from sugars and fats, of which a large fraction will be saturated fats, you're going to do yet more damage to your body. To get to a healthy diet, you must get rid of almost all the salt, sugar and fats in the diet, even so-called "healthy oils" like olive oil as Dr. Klaper points out here.
