Anyone else having trouble with sodium and sugar targets?

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  • AuntieMC
    AuntieMC Posts: 346 Member
    It is very important for me to control my sugars, because I am battling Cancer. For those of you who don't know, Cancer feeds directly on sugar. I eliminated ALL refined sugars from my diet several months ago. I don't even use products with sugar listed as an ingredient, such as bread or spaghetti sauce (It is really difficult to find a spaghetti sauce with no added sugar, let me tell you! Even the health food store only had ONE brand that met this criteria!).

    I took a Food Diary page from just before I joined My Fitness Pal, and used it to log in various types of Fruits, Vegetables, etc. (Fruits listed under Breakfast, Vegetables listed under Lunch), so I could glance at it to decide what things I can combine in any given day and still stay within my Target for natural sugars. Some fruits are higher in sugars than others. Berries are generally lower in sugars, which is good news for me, because berries also have some potent cancer-fighting molecules of various types. Fruit JUICES are usually quite high in sugars, plus they have the added disadvantage of not providing the roughage or some of the micronutrients in the whole fruit. For vegetables,the root vegetables and squashes seem to be higher in natural sugars. Tomato sauce can be on the high side, but I eat it almost daily, for certain cancer-fighting benefits. So I just have to adjust my other sugars accordingly. I am thinking of going to using the tomato suace every OTHER day to leave room for more fruit, which has its own nutritional benefits, of course.

    Right now, what this means to me is very little fruit. I get vitamin C in the tomatoes, so I can pass on orange juice. I will sometimes have a few slices of orange, to get some of its other nutritional benefits without blowing my sugar allotment. It means more cruciferous and leafy vegetables than root vegetables.

    I think that a healthy person should probably have a bit more fruit, as long as they are getting plenty of vegetables. But if you REALLY need to watch your sugars, it CAN be done!
  • Evelyn_Gorfram
    Evelyn_Gorfram Posts: 706 Member
    I think that a healthy person should probably have a bit more fruit, as long as they are getting plenty of vegetables. But if you REALLY need to watch your sugars, it CAN be done!
    I really admire the research, determination, and aplomb you've brought to your fight against cancer. Here' to your long-contiued success! :)

    The thing that is bugging me here is not knowing where the MFP goal for sugar comes from, or how I should interpret it with repect to my individual food intake. I *can* stay within the 35 g/day it cites for me (I won't *like* it, but I can do it), but I want to know why it's not 34 or 36 (or 22, or 107, or 58-3/4...).

    The cholesterol number was easy. The MFP tracker came up with a limit of 300 mg cholesterol/day. A little Googling turned up that this is the US RDI for healthy adults. But healthy adult don't have cholesterol levels of 237 mg/dl, and I do. So a bit more research, and I find a recommendation that those actively seeking to lower their cholesterol levels should keep their cholesterol intake below 200 mg/day. I go into my Diary, customize that goal, and - bing bang boom, I'm done. I know what I need to do and why I need to to do it.

    But there is no US RDI for sugar. So where does the one in the MFP tracker come from? Without knowing what it means, I have no way of knowing what it means to me.

    (Sorry if I sound rant-ey. Like I say, this has been bugging me.)
  • mocoworm
    mocoworm Posts: 31
    So are natural sugars ok ? Fruit and suchlike.

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