Sugar tracking in regards to fresh fruit

_AllieCat_

I track my sugar in my diary because I think eating less sugar is important. I never thought I was eating too much sugar before I started tracking it, but that is the category I go over the most. I enjoy eating fresh fruit often, and I notice that there is a lot of sugar in fruit. I am having a hard time not having my sugar go into the red when I eat fresh fruit. I thought fruit was supposed to be very good for you so I don't want to cut fruit out or feel like I have to. What should I do?

Zichu

I think you should track fruit, but not worry too much about the amount of sugar from fruit. There are plenty of vitamins and minerals in fruit that I would rather be worried about than the sugar that's in fruit. Obviously, sugar is sugar, but there are different types of sugars, but I am pretty sure all sugars in excess will have the same affect.

Just make sure you do track them because they do add up to your calories, so don't go and have like 20 pieces of fruit in one day without tracking it and then having meals and snacks on top because it will add up and you will most likely go over your calorie goal.

81Katz

I like this saying I have read on here many times... "you didn't get fat eating fruits and vegetables." I used to freak out seeing my sugar counts until I noticed at least 95% of them are from the fruit (and yes veggies) I eat during the day. I had 2 servings of fruit with breakfast alone this morning. (half banana and sliced strawberries)

There are benefits in fruit that outweigh what the sugar content is, my opinion. Some say sugar is sugar, some say it's different or it breaks down differently but to me I'd rather eat the fruit and get the sugar and good for you benefits instead of just saying "Oh to heck with it, sugar is sugar let me eat this candy bar!".

_AllieCat_

Thanks! I'm feeling better about my beloved fruit now. I enjoy your quote about not getting fat eating fruits and veggies!

Captain_Tightpants

Only two reasons I can think of to track simple sugars:

1) you're insulin resistant (or have some condition that leads to it such as PCOS), or you're diabetic or pre-diabetic.
2) you're a chocolate, cake and candyaholic

Better to switch that sugar column out for something more important, like fiber.

81Katz

Only two reasons I can think of to track simple sugars:

1) you're insulin resistant (or have some condition that leads to it such as PCOS), or you're diabetic or pre-diabetic.
2) you're a chocolate, cake and candyaholic

Better to switch that sugar column out for something more important, like fiber.

^^^ This ... if you have reasons to watch your sugar (any) sugar such as the above listed. For me though, I don't really worry about it much. Some days I might eat 3-5 servings a day. It might not be a full servings size, but some blueberries here, some raspberries there, or if it's a full servings I will have a whole apple, pear, plum, etc. .<--- not all 3 in one day lol but 1 whole apple that day or a whole pear another day. Usually rhe fruit in between is little bits here and there or something like a half banana.

Crawflowr

The sugar limit in MFP comes from the USDA recommendation for "added sugar" not milk and intrinsic sugars. The UK guideline daily amounts for sugar allow 19% of your calories from total sugars with only 10% from what they call NMES (non-milk extrinsic sugar), this equates to 90g of sugar (50g NMES) in a 2000 calorie daily allowance. Thus you should have no problems eating your fruit. The MFP sugar allowance equates to only about 8% of your daily calories.

I only just realised this was the case and have thus been cutting out fruit as it always blew my limit, but now I have upped my sugar limit to 65g (on a 1430 calorie goal) so my sugar limit rerely goes into the red, but I try to make sure the extra 30g of sugar comes from fruit/vegetables.

Crawflowr

To back up my rational for upping the MFP sugar limit check out:


http://www.fdf.org.uk/publicgeneral/gdas_science_jul09.pdf