Talk about coincidence - and why today’s title could’ve just as easily been “Thank god for crackpots: Part II.”

Two Saturdays ago when I was working on “Part I” - about the guy attempting to lose 50 pounds in 100 days on a McDonald’s-only diet and why his weight loss and better bloodwork would be temporary - my father attended a funeral. After the meal that followed, my father talked to one of the bereaved he didn’t know well.

The guy eventually asked about my father’s family. Soon they were discussing my diet.

“So he’s one of those crazies who won’t eat sugar,” the guy declared. “Doesn’t he know everything you eat turns into sugar?”

My dad is nearly 89 years old and can get things mixed up, so I asked him if he was certain that’s what the guy said. His tapped a finger on his forehead, flashed his proud-of-myself smile, and said, “I knew it would get your goat, so ...”

So compliments of another crackpot, I get another column - even though I won’t write a word about the mistaken statement that your digestive system automatically turns everything you eat into sugar. You already know that’s not true, so there’s no need to disprove it. (Though it is true when your body is in dire need of energy, it can turn just about anything except fiber into fuel - even muscle to stave off starvation.)

Being called “one of those crazies,” though, got me thinking. I wondered if I do go a bit over the top with one piece of advice I give you.

To abstain from eating foods containing added sugar.

Is that really necessary for the normal fellow? Or had I, in my pursuit of A1 health, turned added sugar into my personal scapegoat?

Then I read a Medical News Today article,” Consuming over 6 teaspoons of added sugar a day linked to stroke, depression, asthma,” as well as the umbrella review it cites at length, and wondered no more.

Added sugar is nobody’s scapegoat. Not even mine.

An umbrella review compiles evidence from multiple existing reviews. This one, published in April by The BMJ, considered 73 meta-analyses incorporating a total of 8,601 unique articles. According to the Library Guide provided by the University of Melbourne on their website, an umbrella review is “one of the highest levels of [scientific] evidence” and a great aid in creating guidelines.

And when the guideline created takes one previously issued by a well-known health organization and slashes it in half, something else gets created, too. News that you - and crackpot number two -need to know.

The World Health Organization recommends reducing the intake of added sugars (which they call free sugars) to below 10% of calories consumed a day at all stages of life. Eva De Angelis, a licensed dietitian not involved in the study, told MNT that equates to about 12 teaspoons (48 grams) of added sugar for adults and adolescents daily.

In the course of the umbrella study the researchers detected “significant harmful associations” between added sugar consumption and 18 health problems relating to the glands and the metabolism, 10 to the cardiovascular system, and seven to certain cancers. Moreover, they found “moderate quality evidence” linking higher added sugar ingestion to higher body weight and body fat accumulation.

As a result, the guidelines in their conclusion recommend limiting added sugar consumption more than the WHO does. To approximately 6 teaspoons (24 grams) per day and to limit the consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages to less than one serving per week “to reduce the adverse effect of sugars on health.”

Despite the paper’s recommendation, I stand pat. You may ultimately come to see my argument as semantics, but I still say your goal should be to avoid any added sugar.

Not because I’ve gone hopelessly over the top on this matter, but because I have gone regularly to grocery stores in your area. I know if you buy even a few of the processed foods offered there, it’s tough to limit your consumption of added sugars to 24 grams in a day.

How tough? Take a hypothetical trip with me down your local grocery store’s cereal aisle. We’ll check for how many grams of added sugars are found in one and three-quarters cups of a few popular cereals, and you’ll find out.

We’ll calculate that amount since it fills a typical cereal bowl to about the two-thirds mark. The amount most people really eat for breakfast - regardless of the Serving Size suggested on the cereal box’s Nutrition Facts panel.

Honey Nut Cheerios, 21 grams. Multi-Grain Cheerios, 11.3 grams. Life Cinnamon, 17.5 grams. Life Original, 14 grams. Apple Jacks, 18.4 grams. Frosted Flakes, 21 grams. Raisin Bran 15.75 grams (and 29.75 grams of total sugar).

Oatmeal eaters need to know that doing so only keeps you from ingesting added sugars if you steer clear of the single-serve instant varieties.

One packet of Quaker Instant Banana & Maple, for instance, contains 9 grams of added sugar; a packet of Quaker Instant Peaches & Cream, 8 grams.