SUGAR!

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Thriceshy
Thriceshy Posts: 707 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
As a kid growing up, I watched my diabetic mom and her diabetic father poring over labels, trying to avoid SUGAR, all the while totally missing what CARBS do to your blood sugar. When I was diagnosed diabetic in 2011, I immediately began watching carbs, knocking my A1c down from 6.9 to 5.4 in just a few months. It's still there, btw--my A1c is still well below 6%. However, I've noticed lately that, while my carbs are good, I am routinely coming in over on my sugars. Like WELL over, double-plus what the formula calls for some days. And yet I'm not munching out on candy or cookies. In fact, here's tomorrow's entry:

Breakfast
Tangerines, (mandarin oranges) - Raw, 1 medium
Bananas - Raw, 1 small (6" to 6-7/8" long)


Lunch
Nature's Path - Multigrain Oat Bran Cereal, 3/4 cup
Chobani Greek Yogurt Cherry on the Bottom - Yogurt 100 g,


Dinner
Wegmans - Swordfish , 6 oz
Sugar Snap - Peas, Raw, 30 Pods (34g)
Cucumber - With peel, raw, 0.25 cup slices
Marketside - Spring Mix Salad, 1 cups
Produce - Tomato (Medium) Slices, 4 Medium Slice
Wegmans - Bleu Cheese Yogurt Dressing, 2 tbsp
Mario - Sliced Black Olives, 1 tbsp
Nuts - Walnuts, english, 0.5 oz (14 halves)
Veggies - Carrots, Steamed, Fresh, 100 g
Onion, Vidalia - Onion, Sweet Raw, 0.5 medium
Homemade - Wilted Spinach, Garlic and Lemon, 1/2 cup


Snacks
Almond Breeze - Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk ,
Generic - Banana - Medium 7 - 8" (115g), 1 Banana
Red Raspberries Frozen - No Sugar Added, 0.33 cup
Blackberries - Fresh, 0.33 cup
Strawberries - Raw, 6 medium (1-1/4" dia)


Vitamins
Nature Made - Vitamin D 1000 I.U. With D3 Liquid Softgels, 2 Tablet
Alive - Daily Energy Multivitamin Multimineral, 1 pill
Nature Made - Cholestoff Plus, 2 Softgels
Gnc Herbal Plus - Turmeric 500mg, 1 pill
Oils Generic - Gnc Fish Oil 1000, 1 gel capsule
Spring Valley - Herbal Supplement Odorless Garlic 600 Mg, 1 softgel

That's a pretty average day for me, and that's got my sugar at 45 grams OVER the "desired" amount--that's more than twice what the program says I should have! Should I just ignore it? Does it really matter, so long as my carbs and calories are good and my cholesterol, sodium, and fiber intake are great?

Not sure it's possible for me to drag the numbers down as low as the site says they should be? And the multigrain oat bran cereal? Only has four grams of sugar--it's not the problem. It's the fruits and veggies, and I can't imagine it would be good for me to ditch those.

Kris
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Replies

  • kellykw
    kellykw Posts: 184 Member
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    As long as your A1c is good, I say don't worry.
  • Thriceshy
    Thriceshy Posts: 707 Member
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    As long as your A1c is good, I say don't worry.

    That's how I've felt about it, but I have concerns about my triglycerides, cholesterol, and the like, and I worry that there could be a connection. I keep refined sugars to a minimum, but I'm still concerned.

    Incredibly irritating, how interconnected things can be. Unfair, and I want a do over.

    :-)

    Kris
  • sapphirewinds
    sapphirewinds Posts: 2
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    *::~*~*grants do-over*~*~::*

    Did that work? :bigsmile:
  • columbus27
    columbus27 Posts: 178 Member
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    Try to keep your carbs less than 45g per meal. And no starchy carbs 4 hours before a cardio workout. Don't worry about sugar. And everybody is different but for me fruit and cardo don't work to well.
  • Thriceshy
    Thriceshy Posts: 707 Member
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    Try to keep your carbs less than 45g per meal. And no starchy carbs 4 hours before a cardio workout. Don't worry about sugar. And everybody is different but for me fruit and cardo don't work to well.

    That's very close to what I do--I shoot for less than fifty effective per meal, and it keeps my blood sugar nicely controlled. Yet my sugars are really high, or appear to be. But I guess it's not an issue?

    Thanks!

    Kris
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    as you said at the start it's the total carbs that count and the sugar's included already.

    You can turn off sugar tracking in the settings, or re-run custom goals and put a different target in.
  • Thriceshy
    Thriceshy Posts: 707 Member
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    as you said at the start it's the total carbs that count and the sugar's included already.

    You can turn off sugar tracking in the settings, or re-run custom goals and put a different target in.

    My concern is this--some sites make a clear connection between sugars and triglycerides, especially in diabetics. Other sites say that's only for refined sugars, and that I don't need to worry if it's fruits, veggies, and whole grains that are bringing in the sugars. While I keep my carbs well in check, my sugars always read high. I don't know if there are actually people who keep that number as low as the preset here at MFP, but I'm wondering if there are, and, if so, how and why.

    Kris
  • pamelawvonbergen
    pamelawvonbergen Posts: 6 Member
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    I was recently diagnosed with diabetes 2 so I do watch the sugar - its very difficult to stay under but I try like hell. Most days I am in the red between 1 and 5 however most of it is fresh fruit and yogurt ! I try to keep all the numbers out of the RED...lol.
  • angimichelle
    angimichelle Posts: 9
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    Interesting topic. I'm not diabetic, so I don't know the ins and outs of what a good blood sugar level is, but if it's consistently high it seems like a concern. Although, I think you mean your sugar number on MFP is high. The only thing I can think is maybe cut back to 3 servings of fruit a day instead of 5. I just know my experience and I'm a sugar addict. I cut out all refined sugar and white foods (potatoes, rice, flour, etc). I eventually had to limit myself to 3 servings of fruit a day because even that I was trying to abuse. There is sugar in everything, but cutting back on the refined sugar was a game changer for me. Good luck with your question!
  • WhoIsAmber
    WhoIsAmber Posts: 161 Member
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    It's that flavored yogurt, the vanilla greek yogurt I get has 18g of sugar for 1 cup. I searched for your yogurt and it has 21g of sugar per serving.

    [EDIT]
    If you like having yogurt, a friend of mine gets plain yogurt and adds a natural, diabetic friendly, low calorie sweetener to it, as well as chopped up, fresh fruit.

    [EDIT 2]
    Don't cut back on your fruit, the body processes the sugar in fruit (fructose) and refined sugar (sucrose) differently. Fructose is relatively safe for diabetics, but don't go too overboard.
  • CyberEd312
    CyberEd312 Posts: 3,536 Member
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    I am a type 2 diabetic and have never tracked a gram of sugar through 300+ lbs. of weightloss. I dont see the point, I track calories and my 3 main macros beginning with carbs then proteins and then fats... A1c have been at 5.4 for the past 2 years and my blood work has been perfect...... I personally turned off the sugar column on here day one..... my 2 cents... Best of Luck....
  • SteelySunshine
    SteelySunshine Posts: 1,092 Member
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    I am a type 2 diabetic and have never tracked a gram of sugar through 300+ lbs. of weightloss. I dont see the point, I track calories and my 3 main macros beginning with carbs then proteins and then fats... A1c have been at 5.4 for the past 2 years and my blood work has been perfect...... I personally turned off the sugar column on here day one..... my 2 cents... Best of Luck....

    You are my new hero.
  • jennifer_417
    jennifer_417 Posts: 12,344 Member
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    I'm not a dr, but my understanding is that, to the body, sugar is sugar, whether it comes from fruit, candy, or cereal. You do have a lot of fruit on your menu, that's where the sugar is obviously coming from. You might want to consider cutting back on some of that if it is a concern. I recommend you check with your doctor, you don't want to mess around with diabetes.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    the body processes the sugar in fruit (fructose) and refined sugar (sucrose) differently

    Can you justify this statement with credible references ? It is potentially misleading and therefore potentially dangerous to a diabetic.

    Firstly fruits contain more than one type of sugar - fructose, glucose and sucrose - in varying proportions. The sucrose molecule is a fructose and a glucose joined together but it splits up in the acid of your stomach and with enzymes. About half the sugars in an orange are sucrose.

    So I do not believe it is a viable strategy for a diabetic to eat a lot of fruit under the illusion that it doesn't matter. I don't want to meet any more people with a foot missing or no eyesight or heart failure through uncontrolled diabetes.
  • yarwell
    yarwell Posts: 10,477 Member
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    Other sites say that's only for refined sugars, and that I don't need to worry if it's fruits, veggies, and whole grains that are bringing in the sugars.
    This is the sort of mess that results when science meets politics.

    I think it's fairly clear that carbohydrates all behave pretty similarly apart from fructose (which acts like alcohol). So carbs from anywhere should be treated the same especially by diabetics. The rate of release ( GI ) of carbs does vary, green vegetables it's really slow whereas white and brown bread it's as fast or faster than white sugar. So carbs from green vegetables are much less disruptive than pasta, bread, etc and especially potato.

    When a scientist says "whole grains" they mean grains that have not been turned into flour. I don't see many food products based on those.

    Fructose may be fattening our liver with a view to killing us (Dr Lustig etc al) or in moderation may have negligible effect as it's eaten with other sugars and other stuff at the same time. I doubt anyone would argue that up to 50g of fructose a day is a serious risk to health. Lustig says "the vehicle is irrelevant" when talking about fructose.

    Public health advocates want to improve people's choices, so they are cheerleaders for fruit juice despite it having more sugar in it than coca cola. They want kids to eat a lot of fruit because it's better than a lot of chocolate. Etc Etc. So the soundbites are carefully crafted to achieve this and the science is left to one side.

    "Fruit is good" actually means "fruit is a helluva lot better than candy because it has fibre and a few vitamins in it" and to be fair it may actually have less sugar and be harder to consume in excess.

    The MFP setting is based on "added sugars" - a concept that arises from the above science / politics clash - but there is no science around differential effects of extrinsic and intrinsic sugars because it isn't possible to analyse them separately as the molecules are identical.

    I do stay below the MFP sugar limit as I eat low carb. I do eat low carb berries etc and perhaps an apple a day though the last two days I ate the outer parts including the skin and left 2/3 of the apple for someone else to enjoy the sugars ;-)
  • Thriceshy
    Thriceshy Posts: 707 Member
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    Terrific responses!

    I actually do only pay attention to carbs, regardless of their source, which is why my A1c is routinely good and i dont have any wild spikes in blood sugar. But recently I've noticed that, while my carbs are good, my sugars are "high," and wanted to get some feedback on whether or not this should concern me. Since I only eat yogurt about once every three or four months, I'm not too worried about that :-)

    Kris
  • Thriceshy
    Thriceshy Posts: 707 Member
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    I was recently diagnosed with diabetes 2 so I do watch the sugar - its very difficult to stay under but I try like hell. Most days I am in the red between 1 and 5 however most of it is fresh fruit and yogurt ! I try to keep all the numbers out of the RED...lol.

    I've set my sodium down, so I "redline" when over 1500 mg. my fiber is always much higher than called for, and I try to get my potassium up there, too :-). But those carbs I watch closely!

    :-)

    Kris
  • tjl2329
    tjl2329 Posts: 169 Member
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    Its the bananas. Thats what my dietician told me. Switch to a different fruit. I am diabetic also. I rarely eat banannas. I think melons and apples are lower in sugar. Grapes are also high in sugar.
  • Thriceshy
    Thriceshy Posts: 707 Member
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    Its the bananas. Thats what my dietician told me. Switch to a different fruit. I am diabetic also. I rarely eat banannas. I think melons and apples are lower in sugar. Grapes are also high in sugar.

    Thanks! I'm actually not asking how to get my sugars lower because my carbs are well controlled and I have no problems with my blood sugar or A1c. I'm asking if complex vs simple sugars will make a difference, triglycerides-wise, and if I need to worry about the sugars part of my carbs or if just keeping my carbs controlled is enough.

    I know, that's a really convoluted question!

    Thanks for taking the time, though! I do appreciate it!

    Kris
  • Thriceshy
    Thriceshy Posts: 707 Member
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    I am a type 2 diabetic and have never tracked a gram of sugar through 300+ lbs. of weightloss. I dont see the point, I track calories and my 3 main macros beginning with carbs then proteins and then fats... A1c have been at 5.4 for the past 2 years and my blood work has been perfect...... I personally turned off the sugar column on here day one..... my 2 cents... Best of Luck....

    Are your triglycerides getting better (if they were bad)? My A1c sticks between 5.4 and 5.8, and my blood sugar is diet-controlled, but my triglycerides/cholesterol numbers are wonky, and I'm wondering if the sugars part of those carbs are a problem, lipid-profile-wise?

    You're an inspiration! I have another 130 or so to go, and you give me hope!

    Kris

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