SUGAR!

TheVimFuego

Other sites say that's only for refined sugars, and that I don't need to worry if it's fruits, veggies, and whole grains that are bringing in the sugars.

This is the sort of mess that results when science meets politics.

I think it's fairly clear that carbohydrates all behave pretty similarly apart from fructose (which acts like alcohol). So carbs from anywhere should be treated the same especially by diabetics. The rate of release ( GI ) of carbs does vary, green vegetables it's really slow whereas white and brown bread it's as fast or faster than white sugar. So carbs from green vegetables are much less disruptive than pasta, bread, etc and especially potato.

When a scientist says "whole grains" they mean grains that have not been turned into flour. I don't see many food products based on those.

Fructose may be fattening our liver with a view to killing us (Dr Lustig etc al) or in moderation may have negligible effect as it's eaten with other sugars and other stuff at the same time. I doubt anyone would argue that up to 50g of fructose a day is a serious risk to health. Lustig says "the vehicle is irrelevant" when talking about fructose.

Public health advocates want to improve people's choices, so they are cheerleaders for fruit juice despite it having more sugar in it than coca cola. They want kids to eat a lot of fruit because it's better than a lot of chocolate. Etc Etc. So the soundbites are carefully crafted to achieve this and the science is left to one side.

"Fruit is good" actually means "fruit is a helluva lot better than candy because it has fibre and a few vitamins in it" and to be fair it may actually have less sugar and be harder to consume in excess.

The MFP setting is based on "added sugars" - a concept that arises from the above science / politics clash - but there is no science around differential effects of extrinsic and intrinsic sugars because it isn't possible to analyse them separately as the molecules are identical.

I do stay below the MFP sugar limit as I eat low carb. I do eat low carb berries etc and perhaps an apple a day though the last two days I ate the outer parts including the skin and left 2/3 of the apple for someone else to enjoy the sugars ;-)

You share your apples?

12skipafew99100

fruits and veggies are the good sugars

nxd10

Fruit is sugar too. I was just traveling in Chile where they have wonderful fruit. I realized I was getting funny headaches and had some symptoms that made me worry about my blood sugar levels (I'm not diabetic, but everyone in my family is or is pre-diabetic, so I'm vulnerable).

I realized that I was eating good healthy food, but it all had a really high glycemic level.

I wouldn't worry, but I would think about how fast what you eat goes into your blood (glycemic level) rather than total carbs and sugars. That's what was wrong with what I ate last week.