SUGAR!

LittleNicci
LittleNicci Posts: 284 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
I dont use "real" sugar, only splenda, and very rarely at that (mostly just in coffee or tea) I eat a lot of fruit so I know that's where I get my sugar count from in my diary but Im worried about eating so much! Should I cut down on fruit?

Replies

  • Capt_Apollo
    Capt_Apollo Posts: 9,026 Member
    don't worry about it. fruit may have naturally occuring sugar, but it has at much lower levels than foods with high-fructose corn syrup, like cookies, soda, and candy. fruit is also packed with nutrients such as vitamins and fiber, which help offset it's sugar. fiber can slow down the amount of sugar you absorb from food.
  • LittleNicci
    LittleNicci Posts: 284 Member
    awesome, I was also wondering if I should up my sugar in my goals?
  • Capt_Apollo
    Capt_Apollo Posts: 9,026 Member
    awesome, I was also wondering if I should up my sugar in my goals?


    nah. the only macro nutrient i adjusted was protein, as i try to consume more to build muscle. and please don't think i'm some bodybuilder and therefore need to eat tons of protein. even endurance athletes benefit from eating protein.

    if i were you i'd keep an eye on calories, protein, and carbs, and monitor fiber and sodium.
  • LittleNicci
    LittleNicci Posts: 284 Member
    I'll just change my sugar to sodium on my settings, tyvm :-)
  • Capt_Apollo
    Capt_Apollo Posts: 9,026 Member
    I'll just change my sugar to sodium on my settings, tyvm :-)

    ::thumbs up::
  • Towny15
    Towny15 Posts: 4
    Hi,

    This:

    http://www.fdf.org.uk/publicgeneral/gdas_science_Jul09.pdf

    is a good read for the science and research behind the UK's daily recommended values for calories, fat, fibre and sugar - it's only a 2 page fact sheet but it's explicit as to what the recommended breakdown of sugars should be.

    Basically, it's 11% of your food energy from "Non-Milk Extrinsic Sugars" (i.e. all added sugar in processed foods, fruit juices, etc. I call it "naughty" sugar!), 7% from "Intrinsic Sugar" (natural sugar from fruit and veg) and 2% from "Milk sugar" (dairy).

    Assuming 2500 calories a day for me (on a non-workout day) (and that 1g sugar = 4kcals), that's 68g from "naughty" sugar, 44g from fruit and veg and 12.5g from milk.

    For a woman on 2000kcal/day, that equates to:

    55g naughty sugar
    35g from fruit
    10g from milk.

    The figures were designed like this to take into account the 4-5 portions of fruit and veg we should be eating. I just tweaked my sugar values in MFP to match the extrinsic value above (68g in my case), and then I know that if I have my 5 portions of fruit and veg and no more than 0.5-1pint of milk a day I don't have to worry about the sugar in them.

    It also means that if you exercise and burn more calories, your sugar allowance goes up and MFP increases it to reflect this.

    Hope this helps - it put my mind at rest because there's a lot of contradicting info on the net!

    James
  • LittleNicci
    LittleNicci Posts: 284 Member
    Thanks James, I'll look at it as soon as I'm able :-)

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