Confused about "natural sugars"?

maddieftaylor

Hi everyone,

I regularly go over my sugar allowance by having fruit - even if I don't have that much. Where do we stand on natural sugar? Is it good for us or not?

Before anyone says it I know "too much of anything is bad"

haroon_awan

Hi everyone,

I regularly go over my sugar allowance by having fruit - even if I don't have that much. Where do we stand on natural sugar? Is it good for us or not?

Before anyone says it I know "too much of anything is bad"

As long as you're eating mostly nutrient dense food, do not worry too much about sugar.

A quick look at your diary:
30g of sugar is nothing. 200g of sugar is excessive.
You are NOT eating enough. Have a read of http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/912920-in-place-of-a-road-map-3-2013

EmmaKarney

Just turn off your sugar tracking - it's a red herring.

If you don't go over your carb macro you'll be fine.

juliekins64

Agree with others, sugar not as big a deal as people make it out to be.
Carb, protein and fat are way more meaningful.

toddis

Don't worry about fruit and whole food sugars. It's recommended you don't have more than 30g of ADDED sugars.

haroon_awan

Don't worry about fruit and whole food sugars. It's recommended you don't have more than 30g of ADDED sugars.

Who recommends that?

toddis

http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/120/11/1011.full.pdf

I think the 30g was from a source I can't find at the moment.

freekat

Just about anything in a whole food is good for you. We need sugar to function. Fruit is awesome. Just cut way back on added, processed sugar.

shosho420

I logged an eggplant and it said it had like 19 grams of sugar...It's a vegetable so as long as its not processed I wasn't that worried. I had a large banana and egg plant and that was like 32 grams of sugar. I read on doctor ozs website that when they recommended 20-30 grams of sugar a day, they do not mean from fruits and veggies they are talking about soda/candy/high fructose corn syrup/processed foods. You should still have your recommended daily amounts of fruits and vegetables. My mother in law does the weight watchers point system and she has lost like 20 pounds, she eats normal food just within the points, she said some fruits and vegetables are zero points. As long as you don't eat 12 bananas in one sitting I wouldn't be that worried.

blaaaaah

Sugar from fruit is okay.

Added sugar is really quite horrible for your body, though. Half of standard table sugar is sucrose, half of it is fructose. (Sugar is also called "sucrose", so on nutrition labels if it says sucrose, it just means normal sugar)
The fructose half of sugar is the problem - your body doesn't recognise it as an energy source, essentially going in "undetected" by the body & attaching itself to those hard to lose areas such as your stomach, and hips. You can't really burn it off, either, because your body doesn't know it's there to use as energy.
Fructose is also incredibly sweet, almost unpalatable. Some drinks & yogurts are sweetened with only high fructose corn syrup, if you've ever had a drink or something sweetened with it you'd have noticed how incredibly sweet it is.

Fructose is also called "fruit sugar", because it's found in fruit. Fructose in the fruit is different to this synthetically made, concentrated fructose & is generally fine to consume.
Sweetening with glucose or something is a better option than using standard sugar. But as a rule, I typically try to avoid it.
Milk contains around 13g of sugar - however that's just from lactose, or "milk sugar". Just as everyone else is saying, sugar as part of whole foods is okay, added sugar is not.