sugar in whole foods

chellebelle315

So this week I changed my Food diary to show me the sugar in things that I'm eating, and it is continuously over my "target" each day. The sugars that are adding up are not processed sugars, or even sweeteners, mostly it is from fruit and veggies. If I do use sweeteners its a little honey or maple syrup.

So my question is: those of you that count sugar more closely, do you avoid fruit and veggies with higher sugar content like bananas, bell peppers, dried fruit (I love raisins or cranberries in my oatmeal)

I'm not terribly concerned, as I make sure there is lots of soluble fiber, complex carbs, protein, and some healthy fat. I think my diet is fairly balanced most days, but I was a little surprised by the amount of "sugar" I'm eating in the form of fruit and veggies, and was interested in how others track this in their diet plans.

chellebelle315

So this week I changed my Food diary to show me the sugar in things that I'm eating, and it is continuously over my "target" each day. The sugars that are adding up are not processed sugars, or even sweeteners, mostly it is from fruit and veggies. If I do use sweeteners its a little honey or maple syrup.

So my question is: those of you that count sugar more closely, do you avoid fruit and veggies with higher sugar content like bananas, bell peppers, dried fruit (I love raisins or cranberries in my oatmeal)

I'm not terribly concerned, as I make sure there is lots of soluble fiber, complex carbs, protein, and some healthy fat. I think my diet is fairly balanced most days, but I was a little surprised by the amount of "sugar" I'm eating in the form of fruit and veggies, and was interested in how others track this in their diet plans.

isadoraworkman

I recently started including sugar in my tally as well, and have been quite surprised at how often I am over on sugar...even without eating any sweets whatsoever (which I don't do). the only sugars I consume come from berries (which are supposed to be low in sugar) and peppers... This doesn't seem right. You should be able to eat a balanced diet of fruits and vegetables (5 to 7 servings) without going over on your daily sugar intake...anyone out there know about this?
Thanks in advance

iftcheiaf

I don't know if this helps, but some dietitians suggest subtracting your fiber intake from her sugar intake. A lot of times, when we eat natural sugars, we're usually eating a food that has a decent amount of fiber. What we want to avoid are the processed sugars that have little to no fiber in them. Maybe if you use those numbers for your equation, you'll see the sugar that you're taking in really isn't as much as you think, thus you are probably doing pretty well.

Fitness_Chick

So this week I changed my Food diary to show me the sugar in things that I'm eating, and it is continuously over my "target" each day. The sugars that are adding up are not processed sugars, or even sweeteners, mostly it is from fruit and veggies. If I do use sweeteners its a little honey or maple syrup.

So my question is: those of you that count sugar more closely, do you avoid fruit and veggies with higher sugar content like bananas, bell peppers, dried fruit (I love raisins or cranberries in my oatmeal)

I'm not terribly concerned, as I make sure there is lots of soluble fiber, complex carbs, protein, and some healthy fat. I think my diet is fairly balanced most days, but I was a little surprised by the amount of "sugar" I'm eating in the form of fruit and veggies, and was interested in how others track this in their diet plans.

Morning chellebelle,
Have you heard of the Glycemic Index (GI) that can be helpful in figuring out which foods have a lower sugar index vs. say a banana that has a much higher one? Not that the higher ones are necessarily bad for us but let's say a diabetic wants to track their natural sugars broken down more than just by carbs alone. That is a good way to find which foods are higher GI foods or lower GI foods. You can Google GI chart and I'm quite sure you'll find much info on Google.

I keep track of carbs on my food diary and have never been too concerned about tracking my sugars but I might switch it up for a day as I'm rather curious to see where it sits for me. I seem to fall way under my carbs most days and higher on my proteins, but I don't have my food percentages set up for me individually, I still have them set as MFP placed them for me. I probably need to do a bit of switching one of these days.

Hope I was at least a bit of help!:flowerforyou:
FC:yawn:

isadoraworkman

Hey FC,
I am usually way down on my carbs too...which makes the consistently high sugar number so frustrating... One of the other things that pushes up my sugar intake is skim milk :drinker: I don't want to give that up...need my calcium
Thanks for the information about the fibre ift.cheiaf, I will try to track that too.

Fitness_Chick

Hey FC,
I am usually way down on my carbs too...which makes the consistently high sugar number so frustrating... One of the other things that pushes up my sugar intake is skim milk :drinker: I don't want to give that up...need my calcium
Thanks for the information about the fibre ift.cheiaf, I will try to track that too.

Ya know I just wouldn't worry about it too much, carbs are considered sugars for our bodies because they break down into sugars, the higher GI ones a bit faster then the lower GI ones. If you don't find you're eating refined carbs to much then I would say don't worry about it much. It's the overall carbs in our bodies that give us energy to burn so we definitely need our carbs.

Gonna change one of my choices over to sugars today and watch to see what mine do, I eat pretty healthy so if it tells me my sugars are to high...psssssssttttt! :laugh: But now I'm curious to try it out at least:drinker:

Have a great day er, um, not sure what time is where you are... but you get what I mean!:laugh: :flowerforyou:

FC

chellebelle315

thanks all....this is pretty much the conclusion I came to as well, and I certainly can't argue with you FC, your results are excellent.....everyone switch back to counting carbs...if you're not eating a lot of processed sugar you're probably (like me) just giving yourself something new to think too much about :flowerforyou: :laugh: :laugh:

thanks for the feedback.

Fitness_Chick

thanks all....this is pretty much the conclusion I came to as well, and I certainly can't argue with you FC, your results are excellent.....everyone switch back to counting carbs...if you're not eating a lot of processed sugar you're probably (like me) just giving yourself something new to think too much about :flowerforyou: :laugh: :laugh:

thanks for the feedback.

:flowerforyou: :laugh: you're most welcome Chelle

rstarks54

I think the word "sugar" is getting a bad rap. Sugars in the form of fruits and vegetables, I believe from my biology class, are more easily converted to energy for your cells, and not easily stored. Your body needs these sugars. It is the refined sugars you need to be aware of.

isadoraworkman

I think I'm going to stop tracking sugar...it doesn't seem to make sense to me, health-wise. I am a very healthy eater...rarely eat sugar in the form of sweets...so going over due to fruits and vegetables and milk seems reasonable.
Thanks all.