Sugar count

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KatieHPhoto
KatieHPhoto Posts: 37 Member
in Food and Nutrition
Hey all,

I need a little advice regarding sugar in my diet.

I eat very healthy meals and like to eat fruits with my lunch and as snacks to try and reach my daily NET of 1200.

MFP says the recommended amount of sugar per day for me is "34".

The problem I'm having is: I love fruit and would rather have this than a bag of crisps; however, my sugar levels are almost double in my daily diary from what MFP recommends.

If I don't eat the fruit, my NET is dangerously low each day.


What could I eat as a supplement to fruit if my sugar count is already at its limit? Healthy foods, of course.


Sorry if this seems a bit of a waffle, but any help will be appreciated. :smile:

Thanks a lot.

Replies

  • Mrsharry81
    Mrsharry81 Posts: 4 Member
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    Would like to hear suggestions about this as well.
  • diamondsword
    diamondsword Posts: 15 Member
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    I have been having green smoothie's. This usually includes Kale cucumber and orange with a bit of water. If you need to make it more filling you could add 0% fat greek yougurt. Tastes better than it sounds, promise.
  • KatieHPhoto
    KatieHPhoto Posts: 37 Member
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    New reply below. I forgot to quote
  • KatieHPhoto
    KatieHPhoto Posts: 37 Member
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    I have been having green smoothie's. This usually includes Kale cucumber and orange with a bit of water. If you need to make it more filling you could add 0% fat greek yougurt. Tastes better than it sounds, promise.

    I've never had a green smoothie before and always wondered what they generally taste like. Have you got the recipe/quantities of weight? I'd quite like to try that :)
  • Ainar
    Ainar Posts: 858 Member
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    If you are healthy without any kind of type of diabetes and blood sugar problems then I don't see why should worry so much about that. Especially if you do work out as well.

    Sugar are empty calories. Problems start when you start to ate it a lot or/and it makes majority of your daily calories. But if you ate a healthy diet with all the nutrients and vitamins you need, and use sugar is just to fill out blanks then I don't see how it is a problem, especially wit natural sugar from fruits.
  • alyngard
    alyngard Posts: 103
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    I ignore the sugar for the most part. I eat a lot of fruit as well and it always puts me over. If I eat something that doesn't have "natural sugar" in it, I would count that. But it seems pretty counter intuitive to have crisps instead of fruit just to keep your sugar count low. And from what I have read in the forums (not that you can believe it all), is that as long as it's sugar from fruit, you shouldn't worry about it too much. I consistently go over my sugar by about 20 grams every day. It hasn't hurt me so far!
  • KatieHPhoto
    KatieHPhoto Posts: 37 Member
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    I ignore the sugar for the most part. I eat a lot of fruit as well and it always puts me over. If I eat something that doesn't have "natural sugar" in it, I would count that. But it seems pretty counter intuitive to have crisps instead of fruit just to keep your sugar count low. And from what I have read in the forums (not that you can believe it all), is that as long as it's sugar from fruit, you shouldn't worry about it too much. I consistently go over my sugar by about 20 grams every day. It hasn't hurt me so far!
    If you are healthy without any kind of type of diabetes and blood sugar problems then I don't see why should worry so much about that. Especially if you do work out as well.

    Sugar are empty calories. Problems start when you start to ate it a lot or/and it makes majority of your daily calories. But if you ate a healthy diet with all the nutrients and vitamins you need, and use sugar is just to fill out blanks then I don't see how it is a problem, especially wit natural sugar from fruits.

    I've cut back my bad sugar intake to almost nothing over the past week and literally all of my sugar is coming from fruit.

    I have no problems with my health relating to sugar (that I know of) so I'm not too concerned about it, but it was slightly bugging me for the last few days and nice to get a little bit of feedback from other members.

    Now where's that watermelon...? :)
  • WalkingMermaid_
    WalkingMermaid_ Posts: 205 Member
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    I eat about a 95% plant based diet, and my sugar is always WAY over because I eat a lot of fruit and veggies containing natural sugars. I wouldn't worry about it at all.
  • dragoness07
    dragoness07 Posts: 22 Member
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    Hello :), I quite often double of my sugar content as well because I eat my 5 portions of fruit and veg a day - I usually eat 2 portions of fruit and 3 portions of veg and still snack on raw veg. However, I do believe as long as you are not diabetic or may need to be restricted with sugars for other reasons that shouldn't really matter as long as you stay within your calories and everything else is a healthy balance.

    Natural sugars usually affect insulin in the same way as any other sugars will. Therefore, these sugar counts are probably quite important for people who have got diabetes. Nevertheless, there haven't been any clinical studies so far that suggested that natural sugars could end up as fat as it easily can happen with "added sugars" in food. Most studies actually suggest the opposite, that natural sugars do behave differently in the body in regards to the storage of fat.
    What you may should also consider is that fruits contain a high amount of dietry fiber which is healthy for us as well.

    However, as healthy as fruit are you still have to ensure that you eat a healthy balance of everything else your body needs.

    If you look for a calorie filler which doesn't contain too many sugars and you are not afraid of calories you could make yourself little snack packs with seeds and nuts - eg. roasted and seasoned with some spices.
    Or another nice snack IMO is cottage cheese, with some salt and pepper on rice cakes or corn thins with some herbs, tomatoes and onion on top.
  • DonPidgeon
    DonPidgeon Posts: 20 Member
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    Everything in moderation.

    Don't worry about if you go over on the 'recommended' value for sugar when eating fruits.
    But don't binge-eat 5 satsumas in a session because you shouldn't worry. :wink:
  • KatieHPhoto
    KatieHPhoto Posts: 37 Member
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    Thanks a lot everyone! :)
  • BarackMeLikeAHurricane
    BarackMeLikeAHurricane Posts: 3,400 Member
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    Sugar is just a carb. As long as you're eating enough fats and protein, your carbs/sugar aren't particularly important unless you have a medical issue that requires carbs/sugar to be monitored.

    However, it should be noted that fructose and sucrose can only be stored as liver glycogen and not muscle glycogen. The liver can hold 100-120g glycogen so anything more than that will be converted to triglycerides. As long as you still have a calorie deficit this will even out. Just try to make most of your carbs glucose and not sucrose or fructose. Fructose in particular has been shown to decrease exercise performance, increased likelihood of gastrointestinal distress, and increase perception of exertion.

    Here are some studies:
    http://www.setantacollege.com/wp-content/uploads/Journal_db/the effects of glucose....pdf

    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/3592616


    As long as you're under your calorie goal, you'll lose weight. Some people find that sugar (even from fruit) causes them to have more sugar/carb cravings so keep that in mind.

    For information on setting your macro target, read this: http://www.myfitnesspal.com/topics/show/911011-calculating-calorie-macronutrient-needs?page=1#posts-13821336
  • texasfight78
    texasfight78 Posts: 12
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    Hit your carb goal & fiber recommendations. Don't stress about the sugar number, sugar is a carb after all.

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