Question about Sugar???

KaleiAlanaSmith

So I eat a lot of fruit throughout the day, which always puts me over the "daily intake goal" on MFP. This shouldn't actually be something to worry about, right? I mean, getting sugar from fruits is better than granulated sugar found in muffins or cookies or something right?

duddysdad

Unless you have a medical condition, sugar has no effect on weight loss. If you are in a calorie deficit, you can eat whatever you want and lose. Fruit sugars are better in the sense that it has fiber, so many choose to eat fruit and limit added sugars, but you don't have to.

kommodevaran

It's totally backwards (bordering evil) to set a limit on sugar while at the same time encourage comsumption of foods that contain sugar, without stressing that the sugar limit is for added sugar, not naturally occurring sugar - even though they are chemically identical and get processed the same way in the body; the overall nutritional profile is just different and properties of real foods mitigate the effect of the sugar, so a diet based on real food is better than mostly junk.

lemurcat12

The sugars aren't different, but the reason the WHO and other health organizations (including the newest US Dietary Guidelines) recommend limiting ADDED sugar (not all foods that contain sugar, like fruit and veg and dairy) is because those foods often (but not always) are high cal and low nutrient and too many of them result in the overconsumption of calories. (Although the calories in them are quite frequently half or more from fat, not sugar.)

So I wouldn't worry about fruit unless: (1) you are going over calories; (2) you have a medical condition that means you need to balance carbs and fruit on its own has a negative effect; or (3) you are eating the fruit instead of something else you need in your diet like protein, healthy fats, or vegetables, and the diet is therefore unbalanced.

Many think it makes more sense to track fiber and overall protein, fat, and carbs and ignore sugar. If you are getting enough fat and protein and fiber you probably aren't eating too many low nutrient sugary things. Personally, I simply look at the source of my sugar and overall diet and don't worry about numbers. It's not that hard to tell if your overall diet is healthful or not.

kshama2001

Since most of my sugar comes from fruit and dairy, I swapped out the Sugar nutrient with Fiber.

Here's the WHO on sugar:

WHO calls on countries to reduce sugars intake among adults and children

Press release

4 MARCH 2015 ¦ GENEVA - A new WHO guideline recommends adults and children reduce their daily intake of free sugars to less than 10% of their total energy intake. A further reduction to below 5% or roughly 25 grams (6 teaspoons) per day would provide additional health benefits.

Guideline on sugars intake for adult and children
Free sugars refer to monosaccharides (such as glucose, fructose) and disaccharides (such as sucrose or table sugar) added to foods and drinks by the manufacturer, cook or consumer, and sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates.

“We have solid evidence that keeping intake of free sugars to less than 10% of total energy intake reduces the risk of overweight, obesity and tooth decay,” says Dr Francesco Branca, Director of WHO’s Department of Nutrition for Health and Development. “Making policy changes to support this will be key if countries are to live up to their commitments to reduce the burden of noncommunicable diseases.”

The WHO guideline does not refer to the sugars in fresh fruits and vegetables, and sugars naturally present in milk, because there is no reported evidence of adverse effects of consuming these sugars.

Read more: http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/sugar-guideline/en/

AnnPT77

When I first joined MFP, and used the default settings, I was going over the default sugar goal every single day. The only added sugar I ate was a tiny amount of fruit juice concentrate (several items down the ingredient list) in one 30-calorie tablespoon of all-fruit spread in my daily oatmeal. (No, there was no sugar sneakily coming from prepared foods.)

Beyond that, all of this sugar was coming from dairy (inherent milk sugars, not added) and fruit (maybe 3 servings/day).

Given that all the health authorities' warnings (WHO cited above is an example) being about added sugar, I decided that:

1. The default goal was not only not useful, but ridiculous in my case, and
2. I should switch the column-headings in my diary, replacing sugar with fiber (which it's helpful for me to track).

I haven't looked back, and it didn't hold me back: I'm now at goal weight, 5'5", 120 pounds, and still eating "all that sugar".

peaceout_aly

KaleiAlanaSmith wrote: »

So I eat a lot of fruit throughout the day, which always puts me over the "daily intake goal" on MFP. This shouldn't actually be something to worry about, right? I mean, getting sugar from fruits is better than granulated sugar found in muffins or cookies or something right?

Sugar is sugar. When choosing fruit, opt for lower sugar choices like berries and watermelon. I used to go over on a regular basis due to fruit (I'd have an apple, banana, berries, grapes, oranges, etc. daily) and since changing to a 40 gram max for sugar and watching the intake, I've noticed a huge difference in my body composition. Of course this is in addition to increasing my protein as well.

cwolfman13

What's "a lot" of fruit? My bigger concern would be that you're lacking nutrition elsewhere. I keep my fruit to about 2 servings per day and my veg around 4-6. I eat little in the way of free sugars which are really what is warned about and of greater concern.

That said, I do know people who are pre-diabetic or diabetic or otherwise have insulin issues for which even fruit is an issue if consumed in excess because it is too much sugar for them.

rerez2015

Sugar is sugar and fruit is sugar.

JenRainbow1

I had the same worry, just see how it impacts your weight loss, if you are still losing weight as usual then it's probably fine (at least that's what I'm going with).
I had a smoothie and that put me over my sugar goal. It's funny because there's people who drink lots of juices and smoothies thinking that they are eating healthy, but I guess it's all in the amount of fruit that's in them.