How can I cut my sugar down?
cyaneverfat
Posts: 527 Member
I just looked at my food diary. I haven't yet finished tracking today. I've had over 100g of sugar! all I've had is peaches, a banana, and milk with my rolled oats and cups of tea. I'm meant to be cutting back on sugar/carbs to get rid of high blood sugar and avoid diabetes. Does sugar from fruit/milk count towards the recommended 25g a day of sugar for adults? It seems a bit pathetic to have half a banana and I can't afford to get a milk alternative as there is no spare money at the moment. I don't know how much sugar my soup had because I chose a random entry instead of uploading my recipe as my numbers are different everytime I make it.
Thanks for any help!
Thanks for any help!
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Replies
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Which organisation is recommending 25 grams a day? The source I found that's using that number is the AHA and that's regarding added sugars, so fruit shouldn't count towards that, or even milk. But I'm wondering how many peaches and milk you had that you would get to 100 grams of sugar (my banana today was 16 grams of sugar).
Using a random soup entry will yield random results
Who knows what's in that soup, it might have added sugars whereas your soup doesn't have added sugar. Using the recipe builder might be more accurate. Or you can use the Meals functionality instead of Recipes, it might be easier to adapt to your different number each time you make it.
PS on the Android app, if you turn your screen to landscape mode, you can see the amounts of sugar (and other nutrients) per meal and per ingredient.3 -
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The soup has onion, cooking oil, carrot, celery, cabbage, split peas/soup mix, corn, chicken stock and salt.0
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cyaneverfat wrote: »
MFP's goal is higher but also includes all sugar, simply because food labels don't always specify how much of the sugar content is added sugar.
And apparently the sugar maximum is proportional to your calorie allotment. I checked mine and it fluctuates according to my calorie goal (higher or lower activity level,...) So that might explain why your sugar goal has changed?cyaneverfat wrote: »The soup has onion, cooking oil, carrot, celery, cabbage, split peas/soup mix, corn, chicken stock and salt.
Not sure what split peas/soup mix is, but a few ingredients in that list might have some added sugar if they're processed (for example store bought chicken stock or canned corn), which you should see in the ingredients. But I don't see how that would add up to a substantial amount of added sugar in your case
Generally speaking, I would say you shouldn't mind natural sugars and only be careful regarding added sugars. But I'm not a doctor and you do mention high blood sugar. Has your doctor given you instructions food wise? Or are you just trying to pay attention to general guidelines?1 -
cyaneverfat wrote: »
Can you link to where you found that recommendation?
I did a quick search and didn't find any speciific limit stated, just general recommendations to make low added sugar choices.
What I did find was that in common with most healthy diet recommendations the guideline I found including vegetables, fruits, grains and milk products which seem incompatible with a 25g total sugar limit.2 -
My guess is the recommendation references "added sugars" as opposed to naturally occurring ones. But anywhooo, cutting down the total amount of sugar - regardless of source - is about making conscious choices.
For example, it's possible to drink tea black or switch to a herbal option (which, imo, should rarely - if ever - take milk anyway).
Also, as you use MFP's logging and analytics more, you may want to leverage its ability to calculate servings for homemade recipes. That way, you'll have more accuracy and less questioning about your food intake, in general (and will know, with more specificity, what your sugar intake is).1 -
25 g is almost always some version of the WHO's recommended 5% with assumed calories of 2000. And that number doesn't include intrinsic sugars, but only added, or what the WHO calls free sugars (which do include honey and syrup as well as other sugars added to foods).
That said, if the goal is addressing high blood sugar (are you insulin resistant?), just focusing on sugar is probably not ideal. You'd want to watch net carbs per meal and combine carbs with protein and fiber. I know many with insulin issues don't find fruit a problem, even lower fiber fruit, but some do.
Re the soup recipe, you can create a recipe and then just modify it if you change up the ingredients.
Regarding MFP's sugar limit, it includes all sugars, including those in the vegetables and fruit and dairy one consumes, so is higher than the ones for added sugar only -- typically 15% of total cals. So 50 g would be the default for about 1330 cals, and 100 g for twice that (which seems unlikely, so you shouldn't have gotten 100 g as a MFP default unless you logged huge amounts of exercise).
That said, the MFP limits are based on an assumption about how much veg and fruit you consume, so if it's mostly veg and fruit (ideally mostly veg, some fruit) and you are getting sufficient fiber, protein, and fat, I would normally recommend not worrying about it. With the IR issues, though, you would want to pay more attention to carbs generally, however.
Were you given any dietary advice but for the sugar thing? I would hope so.0 -
cyaneverfat wrote: »I just looked at my food diary. I haven't yet finished tracking today. I've had over 100g of sugar! all I've had is peaches, a banana, and milk with my rolled oats and cups of tea. I'm meant to be cutting back on sugar/carbs to get rid of high blood sugar and avoid diabetes. Does sugar from fruit/milk count towards the recommended 25g a day of sugar for adults? It seems a bit pathetic to have half a banana and I can't afford to get a milk alternative as there is no spare money at the moment. I don't know how much sugar my soup had because I chose a random entry instead of uploading my recipe as my numbers are different everytime I make it.
Thanks for any help!
Not sure where you're getting the 25 gram recommendation...but most recommendations I've seen from various health organizations are for added sugars, not intrinsic sugars...that said, if you're diabetic, all sugars are going to come into play...or, I should say net carbohydrates in general.
Something appears to be off on the entries you're choosing though...not really sure how you'd arrive at over 100g of sugar with a banana and a peach...a banana has about 14 grams of sugar...a peach is around the same. 1 Cup of 2% milk also has around 13g of intrinsic sugar (lactose). Tea doesn't have any sugar. Those things don't add up to anything close to 100 grams + of sugar.2 -
cyaneverfat wrote: »I just looked at my food diary. I haven't yet finished tracking today. I've had over 100g of sugar! all I've had is peaches, a banana, and milk with my rolled oats and cups of tea. I'm meant to be cutting back on sugar/carbs to get rid of high blood sugar and avoid diabetes. Does sugar from fruit/milk count towards the recommended 25g a day of sugar for adults? It seems a bit pathetic to have half a banana and I can't afford to get a milk alternative as there is no spare money at the moment. I don't know how much sugar my soup had because I chose a random entry instead of uploading my recipe as my numbers are different everytime I make it.
Thanks for any help!
Check out the glycemic index for fruits and other foods. The Glycemic index can help inform you about sugar absorption info and show you better and worse foods to eat for that. Fiber helps slow down the absorption of sugar which helps with how the body processes sugar which is different depending on what you eat. Fruit also has many additional nutrients that are good for the body. But too much fruit sugar can be the same as too much added sugar.
There's lots of good information out there for the glycemic index. Here's something I found to hopefully sum it up real quickly. And a graph to give you a basic idea.
For people with diabetes, insulin sensitivity or hypoglycemia the GI (glycemic index) is of even greater importance and they are often counseled by our dietitians on how to manage this.
The GI is a ranking of how much a carbohydrate containing food will raise your blood sugar (insulin levels) on a scale of 0-100. The higher the GI a food has, the faster it raises your blood sugar and the insulin released into your blood increases higher as well.
The take home is: the lower the glycemic index of a food, the lower the insulin secretion and the less likely the tendency of a carbohydrate to be converted into fats.
http://www.wholisticfitnessonline.com/whats-glycemic-index-and-how-does-it-affect-fat-loss/0 -
NZ guidelines based on the WHO guidelines, which allows for 53g of ALL sugars, and a max of 25g ADDED sugars.
Your milk and fruits contribute to that 53g, but not the 25g "added" sugars
https://www.royalsociety.org.nz/what-we-do/our-expert-advice/all-expert-advice-papers/sugar-and-health/how-much-sugar-should-we-eat/#:~:text=The World Health Organization (WHO,teaspoon = 4g of sugar).1 -
Is my food diary closed?0
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cyaneverfat wrote: »Is my food diary closed?
Yes.0 -
janejellyroll wrote: »cyaneverfat wrote: »Is my food diary closed?
Yes.
Opps0 -
Is that a special kind of milk you're drinking? That sugar number seems way too high for regular milk. I'd check the label to make sure that database entry is correct.
As for the soup, the sugar count seems high as well, but who knows without knowing the ingredients. Your own soup probably contained less sugars, but logging your own recipe would be the best idea.1 -
Yeah, like cwolfman caught above, your sugar number seemed unlikely to really be so high given the foods mentioned, and as Lietchi says, those milk numbers are off -- in fact, the sugar adds up to more than the cals on its own, so they have to be off. I'd check your milk carton.
I also think the sugar in the soup may well be too high and would recommend trying to create a recipe as in any case it's not going to be accurate at all in other respects either.2 -
cyaneverfat wrote: »I just looked at my food diary. I haven't yet finished tracking today. I've had over 100g of sugar! all I've had is peaches, a banana, and milk with my rolled oats and cups of tea. I'm meant to be cutting back on sugar/carbs to get rid of high blood sugar and avoid diabetes. Does sugar from fruit/milk count towards the recommended 25g a day of sugar for adults? It seems a bit pathetic to have half a banana and I can't afford to get a milk alternative as there is no spare money at the moment. I don't know how much sugar my soup had because I chose a random entry instead of uploading my recipe as my numbers are different everytime I make it.
Thanks for any help!
Check out the glycemic index for fruits and other foods. The Glycemic index can help inform you about sugar absorption info and show you better and worse foods to eat for that. Fiber helps slow down the absorption of sugar which helps with how the body processes sugar which is different depending on what you eat. Fruit also has many additional nutrients that are good for the body. But too much fruit sugar can be the same as too much added sugar.
There's lots of good information out there for the glycemic index. Here's something I found to hopefully sum it up real quickly. And a graph to give you a basic idea.For people with diabetes, insulin sensitivity or hypoglycemia the GI (glycemic index) is of even greater importance and they are often counseled by our dietitians on how to manage this.
The GI is a ranking of how much a carbohydrate containing food will raise your blood sugar (insulin levels) on a scale of 0-100. The higher the GI a food has, the faster it raises your blood sugar and the insulin released into your blood increases higher as well.
The take home is: the lower the glycemic index of a food, the lower the insulin secretion and the less likely the tendency of a carbohydrate to be converted into fats.
http://www.wholisticfitnessonline.com/whats-glycemic-index-and-how-does-it-affect-fat-loss/
The thing with GI is that it's mostly about a food eaten by itself, which is not how most of us do it most of the time. Eat your baked potato with a steak, salad, hearty portion of green beans in the same meal, and what matters is the GI of the total meal, not the GI of the potato alone.
Beyond that, I've seen knowledgeable, experienced diabetics here, who test after eating various foods, say that blood sugar response to individual foods can be different in different people.
Whether food intake gets converted into body fat is a whole different thing. If in a calorie deficit, there's not going to be net storage of bodyfat. Moreover, de novo lipogenesis (the body making other foods into storable fat) isn't very efficient, and bodies usually choose efficient strategies (because of long shaping by natural selection that mostly occurred during periods of food scarcity, not excess). As a very general thing, IMU fat intake is more likely to be stored as fat, when in a calorie surplus, because less conversion is required. Not that it really matters *which* calories turn into fat, just that when there are extra calories, it'll happen.
There are special considerations around carb consumption for people who are insulin resistant or diabetic, but GI of single foods is kind of non-nuanced.
OP, I was going over my MFP default sugar goal every day, while losing weight. At the time, the only added sugar (free sugar) I was eating was a bit of concentrated fruit juice well down the ingredient list in a single daily 30-calorie tablespoon of all-fruit spread. The rest was from no-sugar-added dairy, fruits, and veggies. I was getting enough protein, fiber, fats, veggie/fruit servings for decent overall nutrition. My solution was to take the sugar column off my diary page, and replace it with something I cared more about. I lost weight just fine, reached good blood pressure, cholesterol, etc. But I'm not diabetic or insulin resistant.
If you've been diagnosed as diabetic or IR, maybe ask your doctor for referral to a registered dietitian, or a good diabetes education program. Don't listen to random people on the internet in that scenario, including me.5 -
I'm not testing my blood sugar. I'm going to get another blood test in 3 months.0
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