Do you need sugar?

lemonsurprise
lemonsurprise Posts: 255 Member
in Health and Weight Loss
Before picking up bad habits, I'm wasn't a sugar lover at all. I've now cut out chocolate completely, and don't eat fruit, nor milk, pretty much 90% of my diet is veg, pulses, beans & seeds with the other 10% being pasta, veg stock, or sauces so I assume my sugar intake is pretty low. Diabetes runs in my family and right now, on the diet I was on before MFP, I'm a ticking time bomb.
Do you actually need sugar in your diet? Is it bad to go from having way over the average sugar intake to very little suddenly? Will this affect my pancreas negatively?

Replies

  • DannPM31
    DannPM31 Posts: 32
    Why cut out the milk? GI for lactose in milk form is like 11
  • michikade
    michikade Posts: 313 Member
    Carbohydrates digest down to glucose (sugar) in the body, so generally speaking you don't need added sugar (cane sugar, beet sugar, HFCS, etc) in your diet.

    If you're concerned about diabetes, I would first suggest speaking to your doctor and seeing if you are showing any signs or flags for susceptibility, and then you can proactively work towards erring on the side of caution by looking through diabetic cookbooks for ideas of different ways to look at low glycemic foods. :)
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    Yes, you need sugar. If you literally took in nothing that could be turned into sugar, your body would start converting other things into sugar. Eventually, if you ate nothing at all - when it couldn't break anything else down, you'd die.

    You don't need to get it from sweets. Breads, pasta, beans, some produce - a lot of things you send in will turn into sugar. But Yes, it is necessary.

    You should ask your doctor about your diet. He can recommend the best type of foods and tell you what you should cut. :)
  • lemonsurprise
    lemonsurprise Posts: 255 Member
    Had an "MOT" recently and everything came back perfect from the doctor but I meant ticking time bomb as I'm obese and diabetes runs in the family.
    Not drinking milk because it just doesn't come in to my cooking, I don't drink hot drinks, or breakfast, all from personal choice and I'm transitioning to vegan (ethical, not diet) so I don't try and drink it either.
    How would I know I'm getting enough sugar from my current diet?
    I don't eat bread either, so maybe I should eat pasta a couple of times a week to make up for it?
    Has anybody got any suggestions for other "healthy" sugars that are in food that aren't sugary to taste?! Sorry for being so picky!!
  • Carnivor0us
    Carnivor0us Posts: 1,752 Member
    No, you don't need sugar.
  • itsbasschick
    itsbasschick Posts: 1,584 Member
    no, you don't "need" sugar.

    i have type 2 diabetes and have done a LOT of poking and checking after eating various foods. i do fine with 8 ounces of non-fat milk, reduced fat cheese and non-fat greek yogurt. i don't eat fruit (except for a couple of strawberries once in a while), and my overall blood sugar has dropped without medication to less than half of what it was on may 1. walking is the key - it gets my blood sugar down even after heavier carb meals. that being said, i rarely eat more than 20 grams of carbs per meal max.

    while not sugars, oats and barley are healthy carb options as they're heavy in fiber, which slows absorption.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    If you are eating carbohydrates, you body will get enough sugar.
  • Kalikel
    Kalikel Posts: 9,603 Member
    Had an "MOT" recently and everything came back perfect from the doctor but I meant ticking time bomb as I'm obese and diabetes runs in the family.
    Not drinking milk because it just doesn't come in to my cooking, I don't drink hot drinks, or breakfast, all from personal choice and I'm transitioning to vegan (ethical, not diet) so I don't try and drink it either.
    How would I know I'm getting enough sugar from my current diet?
    I don't eat bread either, so maybe I should eat pasta a couple of times a week to make up for it?
    Has anybody got any suggestions for other "healthy" sugars that are in food that aren't sugary to taste?! Sorry for being so picky!!
    You said you're eating beans, so you're already taking in some. Most fruits, green beans, peas, carrots, corn, potatos. There are so many ways to get it.

    You really should talk to a doctor, because nobody here can tell you what you should and shouldn't do.
  • Meerataila
    Meerataila Posts: 1,885 Member
    Unless your doctor says so, I wouldn't be scared of sugar in fruit, much less the small amounts you'll find in some vegetables. That said, even fruit sugar can mess with the appetites of some people, so if you eat fruit and it makes you hungry, try to get the same beneficial nutrients from other foods instead.
  • lemonsurprise
    lemonsurprise Posts: 255 Member
    Oh no, I'm not avoiding fruit because of the sugar. I just don't like fruit! Like I said, naturally I'm such a savoury person.
    I eat a big variety of veg so good to know that if my body does need sugar then it'll be getting it from there. Thanks all.
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  • mike_ny
    mike_ny Posts: 351 Member
    Yes, you need sugar. If you literally took in nothing that could be turned into sugar, your body would start converting other things into sugar. Eventually, if you ate nothing at all - when it couldn't break anything else down, you'd die.

    You don't need to get it from sweets. Breads, pasta, beans, some produce - a lot of things you send in will turn into sugar. But Yes, it is necessary.

    You should ask your doctor about your diet. He can recommend the best type of foods and tell you what you should cut. :)

    You're contradicting yourself by saying the body can run without carbs, but that they are necessary. What you say is only true if your diet is 100% carbs with nothing else in it and you stopped eating completely.

    Technically, given sufficient quantities of protein and mostly fat in your diet, the body can survive without any carbohydrates indefinitely. There are no essential carbohydrates, but there are essential fatty acids and essential amino acids and other nutrients. Sugars and alcohol are not nutrients beyond supplying calories to burn, which is why there are referred to as empty calories. Optimally, the body does run better with a few carbohydrates in the macronutrient mix, but we're only talking about around 50-100 grams a day.

    I try to keep my carbs under a hundred grams a day total (including complex carbs and fiber in that number) and have plenty of energy, and am in perfect health with consistent physicals and blood tests over the last year and a half to confirm that.
  • WombatHat42
    WombatHat42 Posts: 192 Member
    Yes, you absolutely need sugar. Look up the Citric Acid Cycle(aka Kreb Cycle).
  • mike_ny
    mike_ny Posts: 351 Member
    Yes, you absolutely need sugar. Look up the Citric Acid Cycle(aka Kreb Cycle).

    That doesn't mean you need dietary sugar, though. The body needs glucose to run on, but it can make it from any available fuel source. The Citric Acid Cycle works on the glucose in the conversion from fat and protein the same way it works with the glucose from carbohydrates.

    Sugar and starches don't go directly from the mouth into this cycle either. They also go though a few processes along the way first. Sugar and starches do get processed and into the bloodstream faster than protein and fat, but that's due more to the chemical and mechanical processss of digestion taking longer to break them down, which is why they do better at keeping people from being hungry longer than carbs,
  • tennisdude2004
    tennisdude2004 Posts: 5,609 Member
    Quick answer - No!!!! you do not NEED sugar in your diet!

    :smile:
  • JoeCampbell85
    JoeCampbell85 Posts: 140
    Yes, you absolutely need sugar. Look up the Citric Acid Cycle(aka Kreb Cycle).

    You don't need sugar. Keto diets have been in existence for more than 100 years and that's not counting Inuit tribes. Whether you agree with that diet in terms of weight loss or even health, it has been successful used as a lifestyle and as a treatment for serious diseases such as epilepsy.

    Glucose is not needed for the kreb cycle, only glycolysis (hence, it's name). For example, the ketones acetoacetone and B-hydroxybutyrate enter the kreb cycle between succinyl-CoA and succinate. Glycerol backbones, other fatty acids, and amino acid glucogenic and ketogenic conversion fulfill every other role in the kreb cycle.

    Anyway, you are eating plenty of carbs in vegetables, you don't need sugar in added sugar form. While there is some concern with fructose, it's pretty much null in a healthy individual in a calorie deficit.
  • MKEgal
    MKEgal Posts: 3,250 Member
    I've now cut out chocolate completely
    :sad: I frequently save a couple hundred calories so I can have a bit of chocolate in the evening.
    pretty much 90% of my diet is veg, pulses, beans & seeds with the other 10% being pasta, veg stock, or sauces
    Not sure what a pulse is in this context, but it sounds like you're eating vegan, so you're getting plenty of carbohydrates.
    Sauces can be high in added sugars though.
    Do you actually need sugar in your diet? Is it bad to go from having way over the average sugar intake to very little suddenly? Will this affect my pancreas negatively?
    Yes, you need sugar, and as has been pointed out if you don't eat it your body will make it, because that's what the body runs on.
    No, you don't need to eat what we call sugar. There's plenty of carbohydrates in most diets so the body can make what it needs.
    No, suddenly cutting added sugar from your diet shouldn't hurt your pancreas.
    Yes, you need sugar. If you literally took in nothing that could be turned into sugar, your body would start converting other things into sugar. Eventually, if you ate nothing at all - when it couldn't break anything else down, you'd die.
    The body needs glucose to run on, but it can make it from any available fuel source
    I don't drink hot drinks, or breakfast, all from personal choice
    Eating breakfast will help you lose weight. In fact, having about half your calories for breakfast will help you lose more weight, faster, and get other health markers under control better.

    "Breakfast is associated with lower body weight ...
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24898236

    This study compared eating a small breakfast, medium lunch, and large dinner, [200, 500, 700 cal]
    with eating a large breakfast, medium lunch, and small dinner [700, 500, 200 cal].
    "The [large breakfast] group showed greater weight loss and waist circumference reduction ... fasting glucose, insulin [&] triglycerides ... decreased significantly to a greater extent in the [large breakfast] group."
    In addition, hunger was less and satiety was greater.
    Abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23512957
    Full text:
    http://genetics.doctorsonly.co.il/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Jakubowicz-at-al-Obesity-2013-oby20460.pdf

    "subjects assigned to high caloric intake during breakfast lost significantly more weight than those assigned to high caloric intake during the dinner"
    Abstract: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24467926
    Full text: http://www.tradewindsports.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/Nutrient-Timing-and-Obesity-2014.pdf

    "data suggest that a low-calorie Mediterranean diet with a higher amount of calories in the first part of the day could establish a greater reduction in fat mass and improved insulin sensitivity than a typical daily diet."
    http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24809437
  • WombatHat42
    WombatHat42 Posts: 192 Member
    Yes, you absolutely need sugar. Look up the Citric Acid Cycle(aka Kreb Cycle).

    That doesn't mean you need dietary sugar, though. The body needs glucose to run on, but it can make it from any available fuel source. The Citric Acid Cycle works on the glucose in the conversion from fat and protein the same way it works with the glucose from carbohydrates.

    Sugar and starches don't go directly from the mouth into this cycle either. They also go though a few processes along the way first. Sugar and starches do get processed and into the bloodstream faster than protein and fat, but that's due more to the chemical and mechanical processss of digestion taking longer to break them down, which is why they do better at keeping people from being hungry longer than carbs,

    Didnt read close enough, thought she meant any sugar. But I would still say it depends on how much you are getting from your other foods but most likely you are so no extra would be needed

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