sugar

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amatxuof5
amatxuof5 Posts: 40
in Food and Nutrition
I'm having a problem with the sugar count. MFP says I can only have 24 grams of sugar. How do I do that? With just some fruit and carrots and yogurt I end up way over. Do any of you actually pay close attention to that? I know I could leave out the added sugar I put in my coffee, but that won't save me very much, and it's the only added sugar I use a day. The rest is already in the food I eat.

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  • Traceval
    Traceval Posts: 8
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    It's HARDDDDDDDDD, I'm battling the same problem!! I tend to look at everything and try to stay within it all and it's so hard for me at the moment. I'm still trying to figure it all out too. Good luck!
  • sellychan93
    sellychan93 Posts: 15
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    The sugar intake is something I've been struggling with myself too. I still am struggling with it, so I cannot tell you how to solve the problem. But, from advice that I've heard from fitness people, it's simply just proportioning out the high sugar foods you eat. For example, Bananas are great snacks but often high in sugar. So I would spread it out over my breakfast and my mid- snack, along with other foods that are lower in sugar :)

    Hope that helps you a bit.
  • kcaffee1
    kcaffee1 Posts: 759 Member
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    Unless you have a medical issues with sugars, or are eating a ton of sugary sweets, then it isn't something you should have to worry about. If you want to track sugars, then at the end of the day, I'd look at WHERE the sugars came from, and manually/mentally subtract the natural sugars from fruits and such from the total, so you can see where the refined sugars are coming from.

    Just my two cents worth.
  • annalovesfood
    annalovesfood Posts: 11 Member
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    I don't even bother with the sugar count. I have a very good diet, most days, and simply having a berry and banana smoothie with light coconut milk will put the sugar over. And even when I don't blend the fruit and eat it in raw form, I still go over. I figure as long as I am consuming the sugar from fruit form, and not junk food, than its fine to be somewhat over, keeping in mind the caloric limits of my diet. I also just switched my sodium column to fibre, because I know I don't normally go over sodium but would like to have a high fibre diet and it indicated I was over on fibre!!??? I don't really get it.
  • annalovesfood
    annalovesfood Posts: 11 Member
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    Oh and also when at the grocery store a good rule is not to buy any product that is over 7/8 grams of sugar per serving. Again I don't consider this for fruit, and I am sure my yogurt is above that too. But I think it's generally a good rule. It also means no orange juice, 25 grams of sugar per serving alone!
  • drusilla126
    drusilla126 Posts: 478 Member
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    I kept an eye on my sugar count until a week ago. It was ALWAYS over 100. The thing is MFP doesn't distinguish between real and fake or added sugar. FAKE and ADDED sugar is what you need to limit. Otherwise just disregard this bloody number. I've switched to monitoring sodium which is the real killer.
  • luticiaf
    luticiaf Posts: 92 Member
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    Unless you have a medical issues with sugars, or are eating a ton of sugary sweets, then it isn't something you should have to worry about. If you want to track sugars, then at the end of the day, I'd look at WHERE the sugars came from, and manually/mentally subtract the natural sugars from fruits and such from the total, so you can see where the refined sugars are coming from.

    Just my two cents worth.

    Agreed - subtract natural sugars (but keep in mind not to overdo the fruit - reach for veg instead.) I found i was surpassing the sugar guideline no matter what i did, until another poster told me to take away the fruit sugars:)
  • toaster6
    toaster6 Posts: 703 Member
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    If you are going to leave out sugar you might as well not track it. Any way, unless you have a medical reason, you don't really have to track sugar. If you are interested in tracking it even if you don't have a medical reason to, the AHA recommends tracking added sugars and to limit it to 6 teaspoons for women and 9 for men.

    ETA: If you are watching your sugar for medical reasons, then all sugars count.
  • _kannnd
    _kannnd Posts: 247 Member
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    Unless you have a medical issues with sugars, or are eating a ton of sugary sweets, then it isn't something you should have to worry about. If you want to track sugars, then at the end of the day, I'd look at WHERE the sugars came from, and manually/mentally subtract the natural sugars from fruits and such from the total, so you can see where the refined sugars are coming from.

    Just my two cents worth.

    This is me and my husband. We try to cut out the extra refined sugars from our diets.
  • GadgetGuy2
    GadgetGuy2 Posts: 291 Member
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    The problem with sugar (sucrose/fructose/glucose, etc.) is the speed with which they are absorbed into the blood stream, putting a strain on the pancreas and leading to type II diabetes. Our muscles use glucose as the primary energy source, so you can't say that sugar is bad for you, unless you qualify the statement with the high blood levels.

    Refined/added sugars "tend" to be the kind that absorb quickly. Natural sugars, because they are incorporated into the body of the food (e.g. within the fiber of the vegetable) take longer to be absorbed, and thus are not such a shock to the pancreas.

    Thus the street knowledge that natural sugars are better for you than refined sugars. And, thus the guidance to subtract the natural sugars from the MFP count to compare just the refined/added sugars to the daily allowance. This is how I interpret the sugar # at MFP. I also find it near impossible to get below that daily allowance on a regular basis.

    Final note....HONEY.....which I love and cook with instead of refined sugars IS absorbed quickly into the blood stream, and thus, while natural......it should be categorized with the refined/added. Yes...raw honey has more than sugar in it (e.g. pollen/vitamins) and so is better.....but not that much better. Also, cane sugar (the actual stalks) is natural but like honey it is absorbed quickly.

    I try to minimize refined/added sugar as much as possible....and beyond that......just keep my fingers crossed that that is enough to avoid type II diabetes.

    Good luck!
  • henriettevanittersum
    henriettevanittersum Posts: 179 Member
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    Unless you have a medical issues with sugars, or are eating a ton of sugary sweets, then it isn't something you should have to worry about. If you want to track sugars, then at the end of the day, I'd look at WHERE the sugars came from, and manually/mentally subtract the natural sugars from fruits and such from the total, so you can see where the refined sugars are coming from.

    Just my two cents worth.

    Agreed. Just limit the added sugar intake you have in day, incl. from juices. With fruit and yoghurt, it's not just the sugar you eat, you eat everything else (incl. fibers) with it as well. The whole product will help you with the digesting of the sugar. Juice is not a whole product, so limit yourself to one serving per day.
  • The_Enginerd
    The_Enginerd Posts: 3,982 Member
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    This question comes up a LOT. Really wish there was a sticky for it.

    The sugar limit is based on recommendations for ADDED sugars, but MFP doesn't distinguish between natural and added sugars and counts ALL sugars. If you don't have a medical reason to track it, I wouldn't even bother.
  • cwolfman13
    cwolfman13 Posts: 41,867 Member
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    The recommendation is based on the AHA's recommendation for added sugar, not fruits, etc. Unless you have a medical condition like diabetes or are insulin resistant, you don't really need to be bothered with it. Personally, I avoid high fructose corn syrup and have minimal added sugar...but eat boat loads of natural fruits. I've lost 35 Lbs doing so.
  • The_Godwin_72
    The_Godwin_72 Posts: 102 Member
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    Such a GOOD question. I ask my Doctor yesterday because he had refered this app to me. He said at the end of the day when you submit your food plan- if the message states that you will loss weight (weight ZYX) by such and such date then you are fine.
  • amatxuof5
    amatxuof5 Posts: 40
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    If you are going to leave out sugar you might as well not track it. Any way, unless you have a medical reason, you don't really have to track sugar. If you are interested in tracking it even if you don't have a medical reason to, the AHA recommends tracking added sugars and to limit it to 6 teaspoons for women and 9 for men.

    ETA: If you are watching your sugar for medical reasons, then all sugars count.

    Thank you for ALL of the answers. I really don't use added sugars except for the sugar I put in my coffee. I'm going to try to use the replacement (that I can't think of the name for right now) that comes from sugar, but I really HATE artificial sweetners so when I have my coffee I think I should just use the real thing and enjoy it. Unfortunately I use A LOT of suger in my coffee (3 teaspoons). I only have 1 cup a day though. Other than that, the sugar I get is from fruits, vegetables, yogurt, and the granola I eat (that is just 5g). It's so frustrating! I did actually have to do the 3 hour glucose test with all 3 of my pregnancies because I "failed" the 1 hour test, but my blood work now always comes back great. I guess for now I won't worry about it. I'm SO glad to see I'm not the only person with this issue! And I guess even with my coffee I'm still below the 6 teaspoon limit.

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