Sugar grams

jeansgirl
jeansgirl Posts: 99 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hi everyone! i am sure this has been discussed before...but maybe it warrants another round. I have been MFP on and off for a while. Very on this year. Anyway, I am doing ok but find I am always over on my sugar grams. I do like fruit and thats a big part of it. I do a smoothie or vegetable juice occasionally. I notice if I do a smoothie for breakfast..well thats it...my sugar grams are used up. Which makes me start to skip other servings of fruit for the rest of the day....which isn't a great plan. I don't drink much soda...maybe once a week and avoid like the plague anything with HFCS. I don't want to sabotage myself either way with too much sugar or not enough fruit. I would like to just keep doing fruit as I like and not worry about the sugar grams. Opinions or alternatives would be helpful. Thanks!
Female...60
Start 151
current 144.5
Goal 139
5 ft 4 in.

Replies

  • ChristiCare
    ChristiCare Posts: 179 Member
    I am with you, confused! I use up my sugar for the day and yet my sugars (most) are fruits and some veggies. So why are snacking on fruits so much better than per say a candybar. (other than everything else bad in a candy bar)

    I hope you get some really good educated answers. Looking up the explanations on line are somewhat confusing and hard to understand.
  • jjrichard83
    jjrichard83 Posts: 483 Member
    Sugar is sugar. Some is better than others, but not near as much as we consume. I limit fruit to 1-2 servings a day max. I don't include tomatoes or cucumber to that fruit list though.
  • Mjhnbgff
    Mjhnbgff Posts: 112
    I am with you, confused! I use up my sugar for the day and yet my sugars (most) are fruits and some veggies. So why are snacking on fruits so much better than per say a candybar. (other than everything else bad in a candy bar)

    I hope you get some really good educated answers. Looking up the explanations on line are somewhat confusing and hard to understand.

    I have an internist who specializes in obesity and weight loss, and what I was told by her was that sugar in fruits don't cause as much of a spike in your blood sugar because the fiber in the fruit helps to slow down the absorption of the sugar into your blood stream whereas candy has no fiber. It's that spike in blood sugar that gives you the quick energy. You want to keep your blood sugar as level. Also, sugar is completely devoid of any nutrients. It's all empty calories. My nutritionist believes that sugar makes us fat but that's a whole different topic.

    I personally don't worry about fruit and milk sugars and neither does my doctor. Some fruits and vegetables are higher in natural sugar, but my doctor has never told me to avoid carrots and bananas. I eat any kind of fresh fruit I want, but I avoid dried fruit, juice and refined sugar.
  • ChristiCare
    ChristiCare Posts: 179 Member
    awesome that does help, Thanks
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,865 Member
    Unless you have a medical condition that warrants monitoring sugar, don't worry about it. Manage your macros not your micros unless you have some compelling reason to do so. If anything, just limit the amount of refined/added sugar. Most other calculators I've seen/used don't even include sugar from sources like fruit...they recommend 30g sugar max because that is the max of added/refined sugar one should have in their diet. Even then...if you don't have a medical condition...meh....just meet your macro goals and you'll be fine.

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