Let's Talk Sugar!

hig17

Ok so what is the deal with sugar? I am allowed 40 grams, I think or something like that. So this morning I had special K with red berries with skim milk and a whole banana. After logging those foods, I only have 1 gram of sugar left for the entire day!!!!

So my quesiton is since yes I will be eating more sugar (not added sugar) from foods throughout my day, is this bad? I know that we have all had this debate before on MFP, but should I not be counting my sugar grams from fruits etc. ?? I am confused as to what I should be doing about sugar intake, I have not been eating any "added" sugar other than an occasional fat free chocolate pudding or fiber one bar....definitely not in excess....

kristinlough

The consensus I see around here is (with the caveat that you MUST be honest with yourself) if you're not eating a lot of prepared or prepackaged foods the sugar you get from fruits, veggies, a healthy number of carbs, etc. are all okay. That said, if you eat all prepackaged foods, etc., then you want to take sugar and sodium really into consideration.

vinjama

I wouldn't worry about natural sugars from fruit. I eat a couple servings of fruit a day. What I DONT eat, (or add) is refined white sugar. That's very bad. And stay far away from anything with processed engineered sweeteners like High Fructose Corn Syrup or crap like Sweet and Low or Splenda. And when it comes down to it, I would rather have a spoon full of sugar over those artificial sweeteners. When I want sugar, I use Sugar in the Raw packets.

I wouldn't count natural fructose sugar as part of my intake. Everything has natural sugar and or sodium. Maybe those 40 grams are allowed for processed sugar?? Even if they are.. you wouldn't want them anyways

AndriaLL

This is exactly what I eat for breakfast many days, except that I have switched to almond milk. You can save 13g. of sugar right there as it has no lactose (milk sugar), and 8 oz. is only 40 calories. This is Almond Breeze unsweetened. I know there are also sweetened vanilla varieties out there that are probably alot higher. I just tried it when we found out my daughter was allergic to both soy and dairy and I actually like it!

Just some info if you do decide to monitor those types of sugars, which may not be so important if you are getting sugar from natural sources like fruit. I just know for myself, as I ramp up my training for long course triathlons, I do need to get strict about my protein:carb:fat ratios and therefore have had to try to cut out some of those types of sugars...

aippolito1

I keep seeing that the recommended is no more than 40g of ADDED sugar. So when I go over on sugar and 30g of those 40 are from fruits, I really don't worry about it.

emmaldownie

I've had a large banana and a yoghurt today which have really heightened my sugar intake.

I've only counted the sugar in the yoghurt and the other 6g from the rest of my foods.

I think thats really the only way I can stop myself going crazy with seeing the - figure in red hahah!

hamton

I wasn't really concerned about sugar when I first started losing weight. As long as it was not refined sugar, it was okay. As long as I kept the 50/30/20 ratio of carb/protein/fat and worked out, I lost plenty of weight. Now that I'm approaching athletic shape, sugar seems to be ingredient holding me back from further progress. That includes the ones in milk and fruits. I think I'm going to try cycling my sugar. I bought coconut milk and almond milk with 0g sugar for my low to 0 sugar days. Will see how this experiment pans out.

So unless you want very low body fat, you shouldn't be too concerned with it as long as it's naturally occurring sugar.