Anyone know why the MFP diary is so strict on sugar?

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  • rileyhunter169
    rileyhunter169 Posts: 150
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    I'll just say this.... Increasing fiber + Physical Activity + Micronutrients + Water > Lowering sugar and worrying about minute details that won't really matter if the former is done.
  • pavrg
    pavrg Posts: 277 Member
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    Most people eating a western diet are consuming far more sugar than is required, which is associated with higher rates of obesity. Added sugars add no nutritional value except calories into diets, so a textbook healthy diet shouldn't provide more than 10% (WHO) to 15% (many other countries' nutrition guidelines) of calories from sugar.

    In a typical diet the majority of sugar comes from drinks such as fruit juice or soda, which provide calories but not as much nutrition as if you were to eat naturally-occurring sugar in whole foods, e.g. fruit.

    If you eat a lot of fruit (good) you will consume a lot of sugar (bad)... If this is the case in your diet don't stress about it, but if your sugar is coming from soft drinks or high-sugar snacks then look at whether you are consuming excess amounts of those foods.
    I don't know where you're getting this information from. Dr. Atkins isn't alive anymore to push his diet and silly claims.

    I dated an Asian girl once upon a time. We ate more meat/poultry in a day than her family ate in a week. If by 'western diet' you mean consuming a lot of cake and other sugary desserts, sure. But on a daily basis I struggle to meet my carb intake of 5-7 g per kg of lean body mass (~300g of carbs), while it is more than easy to exceed my protein intake (~100g) and fat intake because I don't stuff my face with cookies and cake every meal and there's huge cuts of chicken or meat with practically everything you eat.

    Also, the sugar in fruit is exactly the same sugar that appears in said sugary desserts -- fructose.

    The nutritional value of sugar is that it gets stored in muscles as glycogen, which is used as energy to allow your muscles to fire. It's also used in your brain's metabolic processes. But I guess if you ignore all that, it 'has no nutritional value.'

    You're not the only one though. My brother came over the other day and told me the oatmeal I was eating was bad for me because it had sugar in addition to carbs. This was AFTER he had seen a nutritionist, which means either he completely misunderstood the nutritionist's advice (more likely) or the nutritionist hasn't read a book since the 1990s. I explained to him why sugar was listed as a sub category to carbs on nutrition labels and he should stop getting wound up about sugar.
  • arrseegee
    arrseegee Posts: 575 Member
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    Hi again

    To clarify (which I should have done earlier) the 'good' and 'bad' sugar labels were tongue in cheek. Parvg you are right about all sugar ending up as the same think once it's metabolised. The point I was trying to make was that about cake and sweets, no way would I slam oatmeal or fruit or any other food that provides high levels of nutrients to the diet. My information comes from my background as a nutritionist! (hence my embarrassment that this was misinterpreted).
  • KingCharlesTheFat
    KingCharlesTheFat Posts: 10
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    I seem to have earned back sugar in the meter after my workout. Hmmmm...
  • Stoshew71
    Stoshew71 Posts: 6,553 Member
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    As already noted, the guidlines are for "added sugars". Such as eating a donut or CoCo Puffs. If you eat fruit, you are going over and it's no big deal if you go over because of fruit.

    So you could ignore it and track something else like fiber and just make sure carbs in total are below what MFP says.

    Or.... you can create a new meal called fruits and vegatables. Track all your F&V's in this meal, then whatever that meal total is for sugar, just subtract it from the rest of your daily sugar intake. If you do this, you should also make sure you are within your carbs.

    If you are diabetic or have other sugar medical problems, then ignore everything I said and watch all your sugars.
  • emmalzthompson
    emmalzthompson Posts: 275
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    My sugar is always way over due to fruit mainly! I have chosen to ignore this. Concentrate on your Sat Fat intake over sugar :)
  • willrun4bagels
    willrun4bagels Posts: 838 Member
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    I took sugar off of the homepage for my daily tracking and replaced it with fiber. So all I see at a quick glance are cals, fat, carbs, protein, and fiber. It works for me :) I hate seeing those numbers going into the red!
  • padams2359
    padams2359 Posts: 1,093 Member
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    I go over everyday. I only drink water, except either a latte or coffee in the morning. Hot tea in the afternoon when it is cold I like sugar in my coffee and tea. Hasn't stopped my weight loss. I tried every artificial sweetener, and dont like them.
  • jess17587
    jess17587 Posts: 153
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    mfp isn't strict on sugar, I think you lot just haven't been aware of your intake for a long time and how high content things are in sugar so everything seems like a lot and mfp seems mean but it really isn't but if you can't cope with controlling your sugar then don't count it.
    90 grams or less is the recommended amount
  • pavrg
    pavrg Posts: 277 Member
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    Hi again

    To clarify (which I should have done earlier) the 'good' and 'bad' sugar labels were tongue in cheek. Parvg you are right about all sugar ending up as the same think once it's metabolised. The point I was trying to make was that about cake and sweets, no way would I slam oatmeal or fruit or any other food that provides high levels of nutrients to the diet. My information comes from my background as a nutritionist! (hence my embarrassment that this was misinterpreted).
    Sure, but it's apples and oranges (pardon the pun here). It's a common misconception a lot of people have...

    Fruits (and flavored oatmeal) aren't better for you because the sugar is 'better' -- it's the same sugar as yielded from sugar cane, it's just that sugar cane is easier to extract fructose from than, say, apples.

    Fruits and flavored oatmeal are better for you because they contain other vitamins and minerals that a candy bar or piece of cake does not.
  • magerum
    magerum Posts: 12,589 Member
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    Because, sugar is the debil.
  • arrseegee
    arrseegee Posts: 575 Member
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    Hi again

    To clarify (which I should have done earlier) the 'good' and 'bad' sugar labels were tongue in cheek. Parvg you are right about all sugar ending up as the same think once it's metabolised. The point I was trying to make was that about cake and sweets, no way would I slam oatmeal or fruit or any other food that provides high levels of nutrients to the diet. My information comes from my background as a nutritionist! (hence my embarrassment that this was misinterpreted).
    Sure, but it's apples and oranges (pardon the pun here). It's a common misconception a lot of people have...


    Fruits (and flavored oatmeal) aren't better for you because the sugar is 'better' -- it's the same sugar as yielded from sugar cane, it's just that sugar cane is easier to extract fructose from than, say, apples.

    Fruits and flavored oatmeal are better for you because they contain other vitamins and minerals that a candy bar or piece of cake does not.

    Yup I totally agree. Sugar is sugar is sugar, whether it's glucose, fructose, lactose or maltose.

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