Fruits and Sugars

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shullrd
shullrd Posts: 29
in Food and Nutrition
I have been eating more fruits (usually an apple and a banana each day), however, I have noticed that these foods are really high in sugars. When I eat a banana, for example, it takes 16/40 sugars for the day. I'm finding it difficult to maintain the 40 grams recommended by MFP. How do you navigate this?

Replies

  • spitfire1962
    spitfire1962 Posts: 347 Member
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    I'm not a nutritionist, but the sugars you are getting from the fruits are natural and not bad for you vs sugar from donuts or cookies. Maybe you can look up the nutrition value of different foods and make a list and purchase those.
  • carl1738
    carl1738 Posts: 444 Member
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    I just don't track my sugar. MFP sets the sugar levels very low. If you're really worried about this, don't eat so much fruit. Most fruits are high in sugar, although some people think that because it's a natural sugar that it's better for you. On the other hand, they're full of nutrients and fiber. It's much better to eat a banana or an apple than to snack on a Snicker's bar, although the sugar content probably isn't that different.
  • lpkitty
    lpkitty Posts: 45
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    I agree with Carl, I think the sugar values are set too low by MFP. If I have a glass of nonfat milk it wipes out half of my sugar allotment. Regarding fruit, I think the benefits of the fruit outweigh the sugars.
  • ashley0616
    ashley0616 Posts: 579 Member
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    It all depends on what sort of diet you are trying to maintain. If you are looking to stay low carb, yes you should limit your fruit intake to 1 serving a day and try to stay with lower sugar options like berries.

    Personally, I agree with previous posters that natural fruit sugars are far preferable to processed. If you are worried about it, however, you can look up a list of glycemic indexes for different foods and choose fruits that are low GI, which means they affect your blood sugars the least and keep you from having the spikes that you worry about with things like Snickers bars.
  • hpsnickers1
    hpsnickers1 Posts: 2,783 Member
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    I don't count natural sugars toward my daily sugar. I count them towards my carbs. I create my own nutrition label for these items and zero out the sugar. Milk also contains natural sugars. And some vegetables.

    Oh, and I don't add them to the database. There are already too many user added foods.
  • bucky17h
    bucky17h Posts: 120
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    I track sugars but do not really worry about natural sugars so much, I just consider those are high but they are good for you. I mainly like to track things like protein bars which can have a whooping 22g of sugar. I do think the sugar is set low. I use it as a guide to make myself more conscious of how much sugar is in things
  • shullrd
    shullrd Posts: 29
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    Thanks for the input! I have done well minimizing my artificial sugars, I think, but it is good to hear that others think the sugar limit is set low. I'll keep an eye on it, but not as closely as I've been watching :). I agree that the benefits of the fruits outweigh the sugar content.

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