Sugar? Or "Added" Sugar?

sdavis484

I go over in MFPs sugar allotment frequently but it is bc I'm eating fruit. Should I be careful about natural sugar or just added sugar? I don't like MFP scolding me about being over!

Nony_Mouse

Ignore it, it's mostly for added sugar. Sugar really isn't a problem anyway unless you have medical issues (diabetes etc). The WHO sugar recommendation is around added sugar, because often it's crowding out more nutrient dense things for a lot of people. Your fruit is nutrient dense, ergo it is fine

I actually don't even have sugar as one of my nutrients listed in my diary, I swapped it for fibre, because that's far more important to me, and I think currently have iron as my other one. All my sugar comes from fruit and dairy, and I have not a clue whether I'm over or under the recommendation!

Danp

Sugar is sugar. Sucrose, fructose, lactose, it's all sugar. The only difference between 'sugar' and 'added sugar' is whether it's naturally occurring or if it's been added as an ingredient.

And what's more sugar isn't an evil villain, it's just very calorie dense. As long as you're sticking to your calorie target mostly and don't have a medical reason to avoid sugars then going over isn't going to negatively impact your results or health

sijomial

You can choose what you track so track the things that are important to you.
Sugar was of no interest to me so I tracked fibre instead.
I had zero need or want to track sugar as it's just a subset of carbs.

Do you actually think your body can distinguish at a molecular level if your fructose, glucose or sucrose comes from fruit or another source? The entirety of your diet obviously matters but do you really want to add some level of artificial moral judgement to your intake?

AnnPT77

Get enough protein, fats, fiber, micros (mostly via plenty of varied, colorful veggies/fruits), hit your sensible calorie goal.

In that context, unless you have a relevant medical condition, and as long as you brush your teeth and floss sensibly, sugar intake is mostly irrelevant.

Good nutrition is more about getting the right nutrients into your eating, less about getting supposedly bad foods out of it.

serindipte

I also removed sugar from my tracked items. I track fiber and trans fats.

estherdragonbat

Same, except for me it's fiber and iron.

OAS5

sdavis484 wrote: »

I go over in MFPs sugar allotment frequently but it is bc I'm eating fruit. Should I be careful about natural sugar or just added sugar? I don't like MFP scolding me about being over!

I have the same issue because I eat bananas every day. It annoys me but I ignore it. I don't give a crap much about fat either to be honest. Carbs I like to keep generally low but do NOT go crazy worrying over that either.

lemurcat2

The MFP goal is all sugar, because until recently package information was all sugar. Like some other MFP recommendations, it's not really based on anything nutritional -- basically there are recommendations to keep added sugar to below 10% of cals (even 5%, ideally), and MFP set the goal for all sugar at 15% based on a pretty low (IMO) assumption about how much sugar people would get from fruit, veg, and dairy. Personally, I don't eat much added sugar, but if I can go over the MFP goal based mainly on veg and some fruit, I usually consider it a good day.

Things I'd consider re sugar from nutrient-dense but higher sugar sources like fruit: don't eat so much that your diet is imbalanced and you are too low in protein or healthy fats. Other than that (which is served by looking at my protein and what fats I include in my diet), I ignore sugar (except for occasionally looking at it just for fun). If you are going to track a subset of carbs, I'd consider fiber much more important and switch it with either sodium or sugar.

I'd also try to stop worrying about MFP's perceived scolding -- many goals are minimums, so being in the red shouldn't be bothersome, and I understand the notifications (you ate something high fat!) are often silly and not based on reasonable nutritional considerations anyway.

magnusthenerd

If your concern was dental hygiene, all sugar might be important.
If you're general non-calorie counting public, added sugar is worth advising against because the foods that contain it are ones likely to lead to overeating.

If you're calorie counting and don't have a metabolic disorder being in a deficit or even staying at maintenance while at a healthy bodyweight is going to give a wide range of acceptable sugar levels - that you'd crowd out protein and fat might be more of a concern that the actual level of sugar.

There are a lot of cultures that tend to eat high starch and high sugar without the conditions we tend to associate with it like diabetes. There are even some cultures that now eat a surprising amount of added sugar while being lean and healthy like the Hadza.

earlnabby

Ignore it unless you have a medical reason to watch it, per your medical team.

I am T2Dm and I ignore sugar because it is just a subset of carbs and the most important number for me to watch is total carbs. Diabetics who take insulin often do need to watch which carbs they ingest but I control it by diet and exercise only so I don't need to watch sugars.

shrinkingweez

I stressed about going over sugar at first too. But unless you have a health condition, I don't think it's too important to track it. In fact, I altered my diary to literally just track calories, nothing else. I don't care about anything except CICO, at least at the moment, so I removed the others to keep from being distracted by going over or under.

lemurcat2

It seems like a bunch of us picked up 2 automatic disagrees, but now I have a third. As I think my post was pretty non-controversial, I kind of wish the disagreers would provide reasons, as I'm curious what was being disagreed with.

Yes, I know in life we often don't get what we want! ;-)

cwolfman13

sdavis484 wrote: »

I go over in MFPs sugar allotment frequently but it is bc I'm eating fruit. Should I be careful about natural sugar or just added sugar? I don't like MFP scolding me about being over!

MFP just has a default for sugar as a % of your total calorie target. If it's not crowding out other nutrition and you don't have a medical reason to worry about it, it's not really an issue. That said, I would have to be eating quite a bit of fruit to go over sugar targets. As it is, I eat a lot more veg than fruit.

sdavis484

lemurcat2 wrote: »

It seems like a bunch of us picked up 2 automatic disagrees, but now I have a third. As I think my post was pretty non-controversial, I kind of wish the disagreers would provide reasons, as I'm curious what was being disagreed with.

Yes, I know in life we often don't get what we want! ;-)

Isn't it so odd that people would disagree with absolutely benign statements? People disagreed with my original post which is ridiculous. They're just trolling. The epitome of passive aggression is disagreeing, ANONYMOUSLY (esp in this case with statements that are not disagreeable) and then not providing a reason why.

Nony_Mouse

lemurcat2 wrote: »

It seems like a bunch of us picked up 2 automatic disagrees, but now I have a third. As I think my post was pretty non-controversial, I kind of wish the disagreers would provide reasons, as I'm curious what was being disagreed with.

Yes, I know in life we often don't get what we want! ;-)

I have four, so I win

ETA: wait, I see you have five now, @lemurcat2. Passing crown for most disagreeable back to you!

lemurcat2

(I disagreed, Nony!) ;-)

aayudinova

Here's my opinion on sugar. Your body doesn't distinguish between the different sugars you eat as it breaks down into base components in a sense that if that sugar isn't utilized toward energy expenditure, it will be stored. Too much of any sugar is still just too much. The benefit of eating fruit rather than processed sugar foods, however, is that you get vitamins and fiber too. Fiber helps slow down the absorption of sugar, preventing a blood sugar spike and crash. Another important point to be made here is there is no harm in having say a fruit at every meal, especially before exercise, where that sugar will go toward helping you maintain your energy throughout your workout (assuming you are performing anaerobic exercises and utilizing sugar/glycogen as an energy source vs. fat).

lemurcat2

aayudinova wrote: »

Here's my opinion on sugar. Your body doesn't distinguish between the different sugars you eat as it breaks down into base components in a sense that if that sugar isn't utilized toward energy expenditure, it will be stored.

It would be more true to say " Your body doesn't distinguish between the different calories you eat so if those calories aren't utilized toward energy expenditure, they will be stored as fat." Sugar isn't special in this regard. Indeed, the cals stored are actually more likely to come from the fat you eat, as it's easier to burn the sugar and store the fat (although if you eat low fat or low carb and too many cals your body will manage to both burn sufficient energy and store fat).

Too much of any sugar is still just too much.

Too much of anything is too much -- that's a tautology. If you mean high sugar=weight gain, that's only true if you have too many cals also (i.e., more than maintenance).

magnusthenerd

lemurcat2 wrote: »

aayudinova wrote: »

Here's my opinion on sugar. Your body doesn't distinguish between the different sugars you eat as it breaks down into base components in a sense that if that sugar isn't utilized toward energy expenditure, it will be stored.

It would be more true to say " Your body doesn't distinguish between the different calories you eat so if those calories aren't utilized toward energy expenditure, they will be stored as fat." Sugar isn't special in this regard. Indeed, the cals stored are actually more likely to come from the fat you eat, as it's easier to burn the sugar and store the fat (although if you eat low fat or low carb and too many cals your body will manage to both burn sufficient energy and store fat).

Too much of any sugar is still just too much.

Too much of anything is too much -- that's a tautology. If you mean high sugar=weight gain, that's only true if you have too many cals also (i.e., more than maintenance).

And too much is never enough is a contradiction, but at least it sounds good with a beat on it.

sdavis484

Well this brings me to another question, maybe should make a new post but......I go over my fat% everyday. My fat allocation has already been manually changed to be higher than what MFP gives me. Is this bad?! I'm staying within calories, just eating spoonfuls of lard. Jk