Reducing Sugar Intake

DaffyGirl88

Hello,

When counting sugar grams do you, or do you not count those in fruits and veggies? If not, would you take your total grams for the day and subtract whatever came from those sources? Thanks in advance. ;-)

seantnash

That's okay to do if you only ever eat whole foods. The majority of us don't and so it starts to get muddy when trying to separate free sugars from added sugar.

In the UK we're recommended 90g of total sugar a day so that's what I try and follow.

lemurcat12

Suezq72760 wrote: »

Hello,

When counting sugar grams do you, or do you not count those in fruits and veggies? If not, would you take your total grams for the day and subtract whatever came from those sources? Thanks in advance. ;-)

The MFP goal is not all that good if you eat a whole lot of foods with inherent sugars. It's meant to be total sugar, but seems to assume that you won't have all that much sugar from other sources. One option is to focus on total carbs and fiber, as if you are within carbs and calories and meet your fiber goal, likely a good bit of your sugar is from whole food sources.

What I do is look over my diary and see where my sugar is from and specifically how much is from added sugar (estimated). I like to keep it under about 5%, although one high day every once in a while, wouldn't bother me. So yeah, I personally would not worry about sugar in fruits and veg and dairy unless you aren't meeting calorie, protein, or fiber totals or are low on veg or healthy fats (diet really biased toward fruit).

DaffyGirl88

Thanks for the response(s). I was a little worried because I knew that the recommended amount was 25g for women, which one mango would almost put me over the top. Then I found an article which states "25 g of ADDED sugar" and felt much better. I eat a lot of fruit and veggies (not that I never eat chocolate, etc) and wondered how in the heck I could have the 5 servings of fruits and veggies a day and stay under 25 g!!!

Here's the article:

http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/HealthyLiving/HealthyEating/Nutrition/Sugar-101_UCM_306024_Article.jsp#.WQi7VTawd7g

louisepaul16

Yes exactly. It's ADDED sugar that's the problem not sugar found in actual food like fruits/veggies and also dairy. A good rule of thumb for dairy I was told by a dr was that around 6 grams per 100 grams (6%) is naturally occurring sugar. Anything above that is added, so things like fruit flavoured yogurts are terrible for added sugar normally coming in around 24% sugar

stelly76

louisepaul16 wrote: »

Yes exactly. It's ADDED sugar that's the problem not sugar found in actual food like fruits/veggies and also dairy. A good rule of thumb for dairy I was told by a dr was that around 6 grams per 100 grams (6%) is naturally occurring sugar. Anything above that is added, so things like fruit flavoured yogurts are terrible for added sugar normally coming in around 24% sugar

I love putting fresh or frozen fruit in plain or vanilla yogurt. Yum!

dfwesq

louisepaul16 wrote: »

Yes exactly. It's ADDED sugar that's the problem not sugar found in actual food like fruits/veggies and also dairy. A good rule of thumb for dairy I was told by a dr was that around 6 grams per 100 grams (6%) is naturally occurring sugar. Anything above that is added, so things like fruit flavoured yogurts are terrible for added sugar normally coming in around 24% sugar

I'm just jumping in here to add something. I agree with you, but normally a post like this prompts someone to say that added sugars are nutritionally the same as sugars in fruits and vegetables.

For nearly everyone,* fruits and vegetables are a necessary part of a healthy diet, so trying to minimize those is counterproductive. But you can eliminate a lot of added sugars, and because they don't usually add anything nutritionally to someone's diet other than calories, most people can do that easily. If someone is eating plenty of fruits and vegetables, they probably can get the sugar they need that way, so for most people added sugar isn't a necessity. Plus, fruits and vegetables have only a limited amount of sugar in them, and you have to eat a lot of bulk to get that sugar. It's really hard to overdo the sugar in them unless you're eating dried fruits or drinking juice. But you can easily add a lot of processed sugar to your menu without even noticing it.

*There are people who avoid sugars of any kind for some medical reasons, or who can't eat fruits and vegetable for some reason, and I'm not talking about those people. But this observation doesn't apply to those people anyway, because they avoid all kinds of sugars.

lemurcat12

dfwesq wrote: »

louisepaul16 wrote: »

Yes exactly. It's ADDED sugar that's the problem not sugar found in actual food like fruits/veggies and also dairy. A good rule of thumb for dairy I was told by a dr was that around 6 grams per 100 grams (6%) is naturally occurring sugar. Anything above that is added, so things like fruit flavoured yogurts are terrible for added sugar normally coming in around 24% sugar

I'm just jumping in here to add something. I agree with you, but normally a post like this prompts someone to say that added sugars are nutritionally the same as sugars in fruits and vegetables.

No one had.

I don't think it's that complicated to say that foods that don't contribute a lot of nutrients are probably the first on the chopping block when you are trying to cut calories, assuming that nutrition is also a priority, although keeping in a few such (or a reasonable # of daily calories from them) if they help make your diet more sustainable may be a good strategy for a number of people.

That's not rocket science, you know. ;-) I get the sense that you think we'd never be able to figure that out if you did not tell us. Am I misinterpreting?