How to keep sugar down?
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Well, I am only almost 26 weeks pregnant and at my last weigh in I have gained 31 lbs!
my midwife just suggested to watch both my carb and sugar intake. I don’t know if I have gestational diabetes, since I get my glucose checked in the next week or so. But up until recently I have eaten nothing but junk. Including all the bad stuff... donuts, cookies, yep, you name it. Probably in excess. I suppose I don’t really know what is a good amount of sugar per day. When I lost a lot of weight in college I tried to keep it around 25-30. I spoke with my friend and she said that I could up my carbs to about 43% (rounded to 45 on MFP) while pregnant. Which still leaves me at protein well over 100g and fat at about 53g. I know I’ll be gaining more weight throughout these next months. I’d just like to not gain anything unnecessary.
WinoGelato wrote: »OP can you please clarify why you’re trying to limit sugars to 30g per day? I missed the part of your post where you said you were pregnant, is gestational diabetes a concern?Crafty_camper123 wrote: »If there isn't a medical reason for you to avoid sugars I wouldn't worry about it. You could talk to your doctor about proper nutrition while pregnant though they could give you some guidance of what your needs are. I would say to just make sure you are eating enough protein and calories and let the rest fall into place. I'm sure baby won't be harmed and might actually benefit from a little extra fat and sugar. But again, Doc might offer some better advice.
If there is a medical reason you should watch your sugar inkate, then yes check food lables to make sure it doesn's contain too much sugar. It can be in wierd places. My example that happened to me today: My MFP app yelled at me this morning for my sugar content when all I had planned was a granola bar, salad, spaghetti and an apple. While yes the granola bar and apple will contain a good amount of sugar, it surely wouldn't be that high! Then I remembered they add sugar to jarred pasta sauce. For your fruits & even veggies there is a lot of info online about low glycemic foods you could look up to give you an idea of what to eat more of, and what to limit.
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WinoGelato wrote: »sugarnspice0613 wrote: »Sugar is definitely hidden in many things that are processed which would be the first thing I would cut and try to eat as many whole foods as possible. Sugar is a carb so it makes sense you are going over in both. Berries have the lowest carb counts with strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries giving about 3-4 carbs for a half cup each. To offer more suggestions, it would be helpful if you had an open food diary for me to view your macros/goals and what you are eating as well as knowing why you are restricting sugar to 30.
Can you give some examples of where you feel sugar is hidden in processed foods, and how exactly it’s hidden? I eat a mix of processed foods and Whole Foods and I often see this claim, but I’m rarely over my sugar count. I’m just curious what people are eating that they are surprised to learn have sugar in them? It’s listed on both the ingredients and the nutrition label so I’m not sure how it’s really hidden?
A good example would be canned tomato soup. It's not "hidden" in the sense that it's right there on the label, but it's hidden in the sense that many people would not think to read the label because there's no logical reason for anyone to put corn syrup in tomato soup to begin with.
OP, the official USDA sugar recommendation (which is MFP's default setting) is for added sugars, not natural sugars. While many people here will tell you there's no difference in the way the body handles these, as a diabetic who tests my own blood glucose frequently, I can tell you there is indeed a difference in the way the body responds to them, which is due mostly to the naturally occurring fiber and so on which is found in fruits, dairy, vegetables, and so on, which slows absorption and helps prevent blood glucose spikes. You do not need to avoid fruits and unless you have been told to by a doctor, you probably shouldn't avoid them while pregnant.5 -
nickssweetheart wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »sugarnspice0613 wrote: »Sugar is definitely hidden in many things that are processed which would be the first thing I would cut and try to eat as many whole foods as possible. Sugar is a carb so it makes sense you are going over in both. Berries have the lowest carb counts with strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries giving about 3-4 carbs for a half cup each. To offer more suggestions, it would be helpful if you had an open food diary for me to view your macros/goals and what you are eating as well as knowing why you are restricting sugar to 30.
Can you give some examples of where you feel sugar is hidden in processed foods, and how exactly it’s hidden? I eat a mix of processed foods and Whole Foods and I often see this claim, but I’m rarely over my sugar count. I’m just curious what people are eating that they are surprised to learn have sugar in them? It’s listed on both the ingredients and the nutrition label so I’m not sure how it’s really hidden?
If you don't know all the different names for sugar it can be classed as hidden. Unless you google every ingredient while in the supermarket before you buy it of course, but who wants to do that. Basically the less processed foods the less added sugar you're going to get.
But the sugar quantity is listed right there on the label, as mentioned above it is currently not differentiated as to natural or added sugar, so again, not really hidden or something that needs to be googled, if someone is tracking their sugar.
As I mentioned - I eat quite a bit of processed foods - yesterday in particular I ate almost all processed foods as it was a crazy day. Frozen breakfast bowl, frozen meal for lunch. A chobani flip for a snack, a sandwich with store lunch meat and processed cheese and a can of soup for dinner. With all that I was under both calories and under my sugar goal for the day, it was a rare day I happened to check sugar as I don’t track it specifically, so I had a half serving of talenti after dinner. Still right at goal for sugar. Way over on sodium but that’s not surprising, nor particularly concerning to me.
So again, what are the processed foods where sugar is lurking that people should be watching out for?
Well, here's an example that happened to me recently. I bought a can of kidney beans without reading the ingredient list. Not chili beans, not baked beans, just labeled kidney beans. My expectation when I buy something sold as canned beans is that it will consist of beans and salt and maybe a preservative.
I was pretty surprised when I went to open the can and saw "sugar" listed as an ingredient.
That seems quite odd. I buy canned beans a lot and they never have sugar, so I wouldn't consider beans a common source of "hidden sugar" or an example of sugar being in EVERYTHING these days as some (incorrectly) claim. None of the processed foods I commonly buy have sugar except for those where of course they do (i.e., chocolate, ice cream).
I would be annoyed if I found unexpected sugar in my canned beans. I'd probably check the label but for sodium, and would have seen the sugar, but absent something like baked beans I'd be surprised, true.0 -
@therequiiem Then in your case just limit the highly processed carby stuff. Your sugar and calories will probably drop naturally. Like have an apple and peanut butter as opposed to a donut for example. Or if you're hardcore craving a donut for breakfast, have it and then eat lower calorie options for your other meals like a salad at lunch and grilled meat and veggies at dinner. Just try to stay within your calorie limit so you don't gain too fast, and you should be fine. I have seen it suggested in other posts for pregnant women to set your goal to gain to .5lb a week and eat to those calories. That way you will get enough for both you and baby, but not gain too much too fast.0
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therequiiem wrote: »I seem to struggle with going over in fat and sugar. It was carbs as well, but I recently upped those because I am 25 weeks pregnant. I kept my fat intake at about 56g and sugar at 30.
My question is, how are you suppose to keep your sugar below 30 when you are encouraged to eat fruits? And sugar is hidden in so many things!
Since you are pregnant I'd talk to your doctor if you were given a goal from him or her.
Where is the 30 g goal from? It is not from MFP unless your calories are disturbingly low. It is a recommendation you sometimes see elsewhere, but it means ADDED sugar, and would not include the sugar from fruit.
I don't find that sugar is HIDDEN in anything, but I suspect if you stop worrying about intrinsic sugar (as from fruit), you won't find it hard to meet your goal.1 -
xWintersKnightx wrote: »Everyone saying the body processes all sugar the same is misinformed. For example, fructose, unlike glucose, does not cause insulin to be released or stimulate leptin production.
But in other ways fructose can be more of a problem -- high doses of fructose aren't great for the liver.
Bigger point is that essentially ALL sugar you consume will be a mix, so it's a false distinction.
HFCS = 55% fructose/45% glucose
sucrose (table sugar) = 50% fructose/50% glucose
fruits contain a mix of fructose, glucose, and sucrose (and a few others) that varies depending on the fruit.3 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »therequiiem wrote: »I seem to struggle with going over in fat and sugar. It was carbs as well, but I recently upped those because I am 25 weeks pregnant. I kept my fat intake at about 56g and sugar at 30.
My question is, how are you suppose to keep your sugar below 30 when you are encouraged to eat fruits? And sugar is hidden in so many things!
Since you are pregnant I'd talk to your doctor if you were given a goal from him or her.
Where is the 30 g goal from? It is not from MFP unless your calories are disturbingly low. It is a recommendation you sometimes see elsewhere, but it means ADDED sugar, and would not include the sugar from fruit.
I don't find that sugar is HIDDEN in anything, but I suspect if you stop worrying about intrinsic sugar (as from fruit), you won't find it hard to meet your goal.
Really I didn't realize the sugar goal was limited to only added sugar. I always thought that too much sugar whether it comes from apples or candy bars is too much sugar. So my goal says 79g so you are saying I should ignore the sugar I get from bananas, blueberries and black berries when counting against that goal? I find that really confusing. I mean what is the definition, is lactose counted? or sugar in tomato juice? or is really just only table sugar?
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xWintersKnightx wrote: »Everyone saying the body processes all sugar the same is misinformed. For example, fructose, unlike glucose, does not cause insulin to be released or stimulate leptin production.
You'd be very misinformed. Insulin is released with both glucose and fructose. The difference is that rate at which both insulin and leptin are stimulated. Fructose is going to be metabolism more slowly as it's processed in the liver instead of the intestines.
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/core/lw/2.0/html/tileshop_pmc/tileshop_pmc_inline.html?title=Click on image to zoom&p=PMC3&id=2684484_zeg0050964540002.jpg
Source
But it's still broken down and either used for energy or stored as glycogen.
It is wrong to suggest that our bodies metabolize all sugars the same (intestines vs liver) in terms of semantics, but the overall end product (glycogen vs immediate/slow energy) is the same. Ultimately, it doesn't matter too much because eating sugar in isolation is a rare occurrence and ultimately the other foods would cause a different response (i.e., metabolized more slowly)
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mutantspicy wrote: »lemurcat12 wrote: »therequiiem wrote: »I seem to struggle with going over in fat and sugar. It was carbs as well, but I recently upped those because I am 25 weeks pregnant. I kept my fat intake at about 56g and sugar at 30.
My question is, how are you suppose to keep your sugar below 30 when you are encouraged to eat fruits? And sugar is hidden in so many things!
Since you are pregnant I'd talk to your doctor if you were given a goal from him or her.
Where is the 30 g goal from? It is not from MFP unless your calories are disturbingly low. It is a recommendation you sometimes see elsewhere, but it means ADDED sugar, and would not include the sugar from fruit.
I don't find that sugar is HIDDEN in anything, but I suspect if you stop worrying about intrinsic sugar (as from fruit), you won't find it hard to meet your goal.
Really I didn't realize the sugar goal was limited to only added sugar. I always thought that too much sugar whether it comes from apples or candy bars is too much sugar. So my goal says 79g so you are saying I should ignore the sugar I get from bananas, blueberries and black berries when counting against that goal? I find that really confusing. I mean what is the definition, is lactose counted? or sugar in tomato juice? or is really just only table sugar?
The MFP goal is 15% of calories and because MFP cannot separate added from not it's all sugar. However, there's no credible recommendation that's for ALL sugar, so what MFP did is take the recommendation for added sugar and add more based on estimated sugar from fruit and veg (and sweet potatoes or whatever) and increase it. It's not especially useful.
The recommendations I take seriously are the WHO's (under 10%, but under 5% is better, main reason is to avoid excess calories and not crowd out micronutrients) and the US dietary guidelines (under 10%). I tend to eat under 5% on average (some days more, some days less). Those don't apply to intrinsic sugar from dairy, fruit, veg, etc., but note that they are lower than MFP's all sugar goal. Personally, I don't see any nutrition or health reason to worry about fruit and veg or other intrinsic sugar from nutrient dense sources and have not seen any sources supporting the idea that that is a concern if your diet has sufficient protein and fat and is sufficiently diverse in general.
Someone with T2D or IR might have a reason, but they'd be limiting carbs more generally, not just sugar.
Re MFP goal, then, I think it's useless and would instead track protein, fiber, and fat, and look at your diet to make sure it's not especially high in added sugar (and includes good sources of healthy fats). I tend to eyeball to make sure there are no surprises re the amount of added sugar (labels don't tell you, but use common sense and you can roughly figure it out, especially if you don't eat a lot of packaged stuff).2 -
WinoGelato wrote: »WinoGelato wrote: »sugarnspice0613 wrote: »Sugar is definitely hidden in many things that are processed which would be the first thing I would cut and try to eat as many whole foods as possible. Sugar is a carb so it makes sense you are going over in both. Berries have the lowest carb counts with strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries giving about 3-4 carbs for a half cup each. To offer more suggestions, it would be helpful if you had an open food diary for me to view your macros/goals and what you are eating as well as knowing why you are restricting sugar to 30.
Can you give some examples of where you feel sugar is hidden in processed foods, and how exactly it’s hidden? I eat a mix of processed foods and Whole Foods and I often see this claim, but I’m rarely over my sugar count. I’m just curious what people are eating that they are surprised to learn have sugar in them? It’s listed on both the ingredients and the nutrition label so I’m not sure how it’s really hidden?
If you don't know all the different names for sugar it can be classed as hidden. Unless you google every ingredient while in the supermarket before you buy it of course, but who wants to do that. Basically the less processed foods the less added sugar you're going to get.
But the sugar quantity is listed right there on the label, as mentioned above it is currently not differentiated as to natural or added sugar, so again, not really hidden or something that needs to be googled, if someone is tracking their sugar.
As I mentioned - I eat quite a bit of processed foods - yesterday in particular I ate almost all processed foods as it was a crazy day. Frozen breakfast bowl, frozen meal for lunch. A chobani flip for a snack, a sandwich with store lunch meat and processed cheese and a can of soup for dinner. With all that I was under both calories and under my sugar goal for the day, it was a rare day I happened to check sugar as I don’t track it specifically, so I had a half serving of talenti after dinner. Still right at goal for sugar. Way over on sodium but that’s not surprising, nor particularly concerning to me.
So again, what are the processed foods where sugar is lurking that people should be watching out for?
The one that really surprised me was a pack of fresh smoked salmon slices. They add demerara sugar to it which really bothers me. Tesco and asda all have added sugar in their packs of smoked salmon no matter what brand, the only place I can find without is Lidl, but I don't always shop there. Lidl smoked salmon is delicious, just as good as the others, makes me wonder why the other brands feel they need to add the sugar.0 -
Smoked salmon is often cured with sugar (so that certainly wouldn't meet my definition of "hidden" or a surprise even if it weren't on the label, which it is). I also wouldn't expect it to be enough to worry about. Here's an example of a recipe: https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/1016707-brown-sugar-cured-salmon
I did a no added sugar experiment and carefully avoided any sugar (de minimis though it was) from smoked salmon (which is a food I love and eat a lot), among other things. When I repeated the no added sugar thing later I decided to ignore de minimis amounts in savory foods, and when I was ketoing (another experiment) it wasn't enough to worry about. For example, with the WF brand brown sugar is the third ingredient listed (after salmon and salt), yet a serving (2 oz) has less than 1 g of sugar. Eh.
Currently I have some my dad smoked. I haven't asked him what he used, but I know he used to use some brown sugar.0
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