SUGAR... natural or artificial

strawberrie_milk

I prefer artificial sweeteners because the calories are fewer. And for me, eating sugar makes me crave more sugar, so I'm trying to avoid it as much as possible for the time being.

Elizabeth_C34

Sugar is sugar. There are three sugar molecules, whether natural or man-made: fructose, glucose, and sucrose. It doesn't matter if it's man-made or natural, fructose is fructose, glucose is glucose, and sucrose is sucrose. The difference is you that you end up getting a lot more volume of sugar from man-made sugar products (sodas, etc.) than you do with fruits.

Doesn't really matter though. Unless you have an intolerance to sugar or some medical condition like diabetes, there's no reason to go crazy on sugar limitation. Like anything, eat it at a reasonable level.

myak623

So I just started tracking sugar.

I made a smoothie for breakfast (1/2 banana, 1/4 cup Coconut Dream Coconut milk, 1/2 cup 2% Fage Greek Yogurt, 1/4 cup milk, 1 tblsp Better Than Peanut Butter, 1 tblsp peanut butter, 1 tblsp cocoa, 1 tsp NuNaturals Stevia)... and the tracker says I have used ALL of my sugar for the day.

How in the HECK would anyone keep within that goal. I know that peanut butter has sugar in it, and banana has natural sugar... but HOLY MOLEY, does anyone stay within what is allowed?

P.S. I am a stevia fan.

Unless you are diabetic, there really is no need to track sugar.

scoutit

News report this morning (5/16) links refined sugar to memory loss and cognition problems. Consuming Omega 3s mitigates the effect somewhat.

mfpcopine

As every overweight person is told Sugar... its bad for you... I was told too... though I do not have a sweet tooth but some days you feel like having somethings sweet. So i was considering substituting sugar but then i thought WHY? any substitute is chemical when you talk about eating organic why would you want to eat chemicals... plus when i started mfp this time i know 1tsp is not so many calories... you can totally stop having sugar or just reduce the quantity..

Sugar isn't "bad for you," it's bad in the quantities that people in America usually consume. It's bad for people who have conditions like diabetes.

If I want to sweeten something, I generally use a little sugar (no more than two teaspoons), but I prefer to eat things without sweetening them, to the extent I can. My problem with certain artificial sweeteners isn't that they're artificial, it's that our experience with them is limited. We don't know the health hazards and government health authorities have often been too lax, or there simply were effects that were not predicted. I do occasionally drink diet drinks, but a dietitian told me to limit my consumption of Diet Coke.

I think I tried Stevia once and didn't like it because it had an aftertaste. Maybe I should try it again. But I prefer to train my tastebuds not to want too much sugar. I definitely have a sweet tooth.

I, too, find that the sugar limit is set very low on MFP.

mfpcopine

Sugar is sugar. There are three sugar molecules, whether natural or man-made: fructose, glucose, and sucrose.

I don't think that's accurate. For example, I believe I read that honey is half sucrose, half fructose. The body processes them differently.

AlyRoseNYC

I like the taste of sugar over artificial sugar, so I just use that. It has nothing to do with being fearful of chemicals or anything like that. For me, it's all about taste. I just make sure that it fits in my macros.