Question about Sugar

faithbabe21

So just a little confused, myfitnesspal says I should stay under 57grams of sugar daily but fruit is a good surgar but it's high in sugar so if I hit it should I stop eating fruit for the rest of the day or does this really only apply to bad sugars like candy and such...sorry if this sounds like a dumb question I'm just a little confused. Thanks in advance.

Hornsby

Unless you have a medical reason to track sugar, there is no need to track it. Sugar is a carb and you should already be tracking carbs.

TeaBea

Unless you have medical issue regarding sugar you don't need to track it. You are already tracking carbs. I switched to tracking fiber instead.

Fruit is good for you - fiber & micronutrients. Unless it's crowding out things like protein & fat.....don't worry about it.

MFP has no method of tracking added vs. natural sugars. Veggies, grains & dairy have sugars too.

faithbabe21

Ok thank you, that makes more sense. Appreciate the advice! (=

hale03071

Sugar is sugar whether is comes from fruit or added sugar (like in candy, sweets, processed foods, etc). Your body doesn't differentiate between sugar in fruit or sugar in a candy bar, it processes it the same, stores or uses it as energy the same. I think its generally recommended that you don't eat more than 25 grams of added sugar (sugar not from fruit) for it to be a balanced diet.
If you don't have any medical problems, diabetes, hyper/hypoglycemia, yeast overgrowth in your body, your fruit habit shouldn't hurt you.

peaceout_aly

Opt for berries - lower in sugar than other fruits. Everyone on here will tell you there's no reason to stay below the sugar recommendation, but if you're like me, it does aid in making better food choices. I personally stop once I hit my sugar, no matter what source it comes from.

cwolfman13

Sugar is sugar and your body treats it all the same...fruit has other nutritional properties that come along with it vs candy or something...but the sugar is the same.

Personally, I put a premium on veggies and only eat one or two servings of fruit daily...

lemurcat12

faithbabe21 wrote: »

So just a little confused, myfitnesspal says I should stay under 57grams of sugar daily

MFP's goal is 15% of total calories, so at 1520 calories it's goal would be 57 g.

That goal is ALL sugars, since it can't distinguish between added and intrinsic sugar, BUT the usual recommendations (5-10% of calories or less) is for ADDED sugar only -- what MFP does is guess at how much other sugar you will be eating which can be low for those who eat lots of fruit.

I'd say a better way to track if you do eat lots of fruit is (a) am I within calories, (b) am I getting enough protein, (c) am I getting enough fiber, (d) am I eating plenty of vegetables and not using fruit to substitute for veg, and (e) am a getting a reasonable amount of fat, especially healthy fats (like from fish, nuts, olives, avocado). If yes on all of those, I wouldn't worry about sugar.

but fruit is a good surgar

There is no such thing as good sugar and bad sugar -- the sugar in fruit is fructose, glucose, and sucrose, and added sugar is sucrose (which breaks down to glucose and fructose) so it's the same. Why fruit is generally not counted (but only added sugar) in the recommendations is that it comes with lots of fiber and micronutrients and is reasonably low cal for how filling it is (on average) whereas stuff with added sugar is more often than not higher cal and low nutrient (although lots of the cals are often from fat, not sugar). It's ultimately about calories and obesity if you look at the reasoning given by the WHO et al.

Anyway, I do think that most people don't have to worry about overeating fruit.

but it's high in sugar so if I hit it should I stop eating fruit for the rest of the day or does this really only apply to bad sugars like candy and such...sorry if this sounds like a dumb question I'm just a little confused. Thanks in advance.

Like I said above, I wouldn't worry about sugar if you are good with all the questions above. I definitely would not use 57 g as your limit for added sugar if you are concerned about watching that, though (although I don't think you need to if you have a good overall diet, it simply won't be too high then). 57 g is based on total sugar, and with 1520 calories the limit for added would be 38 g or less (10%), Again, I think focusing on overall diet rather than sugar is better and easier, though.