someone please explain this to me AGAIN!!!!

Jerzeebabie04

Okay I am TOTALLY CONFUSED on this whole sugar topic. I am always going over on my sugar everyday. They say you are supposed to have 2-3 servings of fruit a day, plus you need 2-3 servings of milk a day. Both of which seem to have sugar in them!

I love eatting my fruit (even more so in the summer when it's hot) & I love skim milk. Then they say you should be eatting "healthy carbs" like whole grains, brown rice, etc.

EVERYTHING I eat has sugar in it & the 27g I'm supposed to have is totally impossible to stay under or even at! I'm going crazy because I've been trying to research this topic and I've posted a thread on here before, but everything I've been reading is different. From my understanding SUGAR TURNS TO FAT?! So I don't want to be over on sugar and I'm worried this is going to slow my weight loss down a lot.

PLEASE someone explain this to me in the simplest way possible, because I just don't seem to be getting it lol

EmilyStrick

eat fruit. don't eat twinkies. drink milk. don't drink soda. fruit and milk = good sugar. twinkies and soda = bad sugar. i would only count sugar that comes from added sugar. i don't even track sugar because i know i don't eat processed sugar on the regular.

mvl1014

In addition to what Emily said above,

Sugar and fat are two completely different substances.

Glucose and sucrose--fruit sugars are good for you and easily broken down.

Fructose--found in nature BUT MOSTLY in High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is very different chemically (you don't need to know the difference). Your liver CANNOT break fructose into energy.

muth3rluvx2

In addition to what Emily said above,

Sugar and fat are two completely different substances.

Glucose and sucrose--fruit sugars are good for you and easily broken down.

Fructose--found in nature BUT MOSTLY in High Fructose Corn Syrup (HFCS) is very different chemically (you don't need to know the difference). Your liver CANNOT break fructose into energy.

Wait.. I thought fruit had FRUctose and glucose (hypo/er glycemic) and sucrose was what you found as an additive? I do see you have a degree in biology so please share with us how to determine the differences. We know fruit=good and refined sugar=bad. But when you're reading a label, it's going to say high fructose corn syrup or sugar or dextrose or guar gum (whatever on earth that is!). Quite curious!!! :-)

Jerzeebabie04

That's what confuses me! So if I eat fruit and drink milk it's okay to have those sugars. But what about all my other foods that have 2g of sugar here or 5g of sugar there. All those little numbers add up to! I know when you read labels you don't want it to say high fructose corn syrup... but they seem to find other ways to confuse me with ingredients. What other words should I be looking out for in regard to sugar?

nchaffin

So this is long... but really worth checking out if you are concerned about sugar... and the differences between fructose/glucose/corn syrup, etc:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM&feature=player_embedded

Check it out when you have a hour and a half to kill.

BrendaLee

As long as you're consuming the whole fruit, you don't have to worry about fruit sugars too much. Fiber helps to slow down absorption of sugars into your bloodstream- and that's really what matters.

The sugars to watch out for are added sugars, not naturally occurring sugars.
__

You should look for low sugar breads, cereals, etc. You really should keep your added sugars to a minimum, but it's not easy.

mvl1014

Wait.. I thought fruit had FRUctose...

Yes, I said fructose occurs in nature. :-) As BrendLee pointed out, the fiber in fruit helps with the fact that your body doesn't like fructose. I was trying to keep from getting complicated. Looks like I failed. lol sorry.

As far as labels, avoid anything ending in -ol (these are sugar alcohols), or HFCS. I believe if it just says "sugar" it's sucrose, which is okay. If it ends in -os (sugar) make sure it's one like sucrose or glucose. :-)