Sugar "Daily Goal"

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raj2208
raj2208 Posts: 26
in Food and Nutrition
Hi everyone, just wondering if anyone can help me - the total "daily goal" for sugar intake - is that grams or something else? Mine shows 45 with no exercise logged, then when I have exercise logged for the day it increases (to around 65).

The American Heart Association states a woman should have approximately 24 gm per day of sugar, so if the MFP settings are grams then it is like twice/three times the amount we should be eating ??? - plus, just because I am exercising surely that doesn't mean I should be eating more sugar ???

I just looked it up after watching a show on the tele about sugar vs fat ;)

HELP ??? Thanks :)
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Replies

  • katrinadulce
    katrinadulce Posts: 61 Member
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    I believe the AHA is trying to distinguish between ADDED sugars and naturally occurring sugars. Nutritional labels don't yet make this distinction, so MFP lumps them both together. Naturally the combination of numbers would be higher.
    The AHA recommends that when you eat packaged food, you choose ones where fewer than 25% of the total calories come from sugar.
  • chandnir
    chandnir Posts: 13 Member
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    In the UK it is recommended no more that 25 Grams of sugar in total recently if you have a sedentary lifestyle. So i tend to follow whatever MFP recommends and keep my combined sugar below that as well
  • asdowe13
    asdowe13 Posts: 1,951 Member
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    It's grams.


    I don't track my sugar, i have no medical reason to track it.
    I replaced it with Fibre.
  • MinnieInMaine
    MinnieInMaine Posts: 6,400 Member
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    katrinadulce has it right. The AHA recommends eating no more than 25g of ADDED sugar per day. They also recommend 3-5 servings each of fruits and veggies and 6-8 servings per day of whole grains and 2-3 servings of dairy per day so you're going to get some sugar from these foods but they're not the problem. Added sugars from things like soda, candy, cakes, cookies, etc are the problem.
  • asdowe13
    asdowe13 Posts: 1,951 Member
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    Added sugars are not a problem unless you have a medical reason to watch them, like diabetes.

    sugar is sugar, My body doesn't process any sugar added or "natural" or whatever and different.

    Stop making sugar the bad guy.

    Eating too many calories is the bad guy.
  • Joanne_Moniz
    Joanne_Moniz Posts: 347 Member
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    There should be no more than 25 grams of fructose. It is the fructose in the sugar that is the problem. I'm happy to see that people are finally catching on to the danger of sugar thanks to a few medical professionals who spearheaded this awareness campaign.

    Joanne Moniz
    The Skinny on Obesity Group
  • kgeyser
    kgeyser Posts: 22,505 Member
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    There should be no more than 25 grams of fructose. It is the fructose in the sugar that is the problem. I'm happy to see that people are finally catching on to the danger of sugar thanks to a few medical professionals who spearheaded this awareness campaign.

    Joanne Moniz
    The Skinny on Obesity Group

    ^ OP, this is false, do not listen to this. The other posters are correct about the added sugars vs natural sugars. And added sugars aren't even the problem the AHA is really trying to tackle - they are just hoping by getting people to limit their added sugar intake, they will therefore limit their consumption of high calorie foods, since overconsumption of high calorie foods is linked to obesity.

    If you don't have a medical reason to track sugar, you can track something else. I find tracking fiber to be much more valuable.
  • bethanyboomstick
    bethanyboomstick Posts: 52 Member
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    Another person jumping in to say that natural sugar and processed sugars are very different. I don't track sugar anymore either, (replaced with fiber), because it was always saying I went waaaay over because I like fruit. I just try to limit my intake of processed sugar (I would get I eat less than 20g of processed sugar a normal day), and don't worry about it.
  • asdowe13
    asdowe13 Posts: 1,951 Member
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    There should be no more than 25 grams of fructose. It is the fructose in the sugar that is the problem. I'm happy to see that people are finally catching on to the danger of sugar thanks to a few medical professionals who spearheaded this awareness campaign.

    Joanne Moniz
    The Skinny on Obesity Group

    I see you are still in here spouting utter nonsense.
  • abear007
    abear007 Posts: 84 Member
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    I try to keep my sugar grams (it is grams) under 10, including any natural sugars that show up in fruit. Sugar is the "bad guy" for a lot of people, even if it isn't for some others. For me, it's definitely a trigger to eat junk food so I avoid it. This means cutting out most boxed/shrink wrapped/processed foods because most are injected with lots of sugar to make them taste good - and keep you coming back for more.
  • asdowe13
    asdowe13 Posts: 1,951 Member
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    I try to keep my sugar grams (it is grams) under 10, including any natural sugars that show up in fruit. Sugar is the "bad guy" for a lot of people, even if it isn't for some others. For me, it's definitely a trigger to eat junk food so I avoid it. This means cutting out most boxed/shrink wrapped/processed foods because most are injected with lots of sugar to make them taste good - and keep you coming back for more.

    Sugar is only the "Bad guy" if you have a medical issue like diabetes.

    Sorry you feel like you have to avoid sugar.
  • abear007
    abear007 Posts: 84 Member
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    Sugar is only the "Bad guy" if you have a medical issue like diabetes.

    Sorry you feel like you have to avoid sugar.
    The nice thing is, I get to decide what is "bad" for me, not someone else. For me, sugar is a useless, non-nutritional, high calorie carb that i just don't need, particularly in the huge quantities that many foods have in them. For me, it's a trigger food that greatly tempts me to eat more calories than I really need.

    If you're okay with eating lots of sugar everyday, feel free to ingest my share. :smile:
  • asdowe13
    asdowe13 Posts: 1,951 Member
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    Sugar is only the "Bad guy" if you have a medical issue like diabetes.

    Sorry you feel like you have to avoid sugar.
    The nice thing is, I get to decide what is "bad" for me, not someone else. For me, sugar is a useless, non-nutritional, high calorie carb that i just don't need, particularly in the huge quantities that many foods have in them. For me, it's a trigger food that greatly tempts me to eat more calories than I really need.

    If you're okay with eating lots of sugar everyday, feel free to ingest my share. :smile:

    No one is telling you to not eat sugar, but it's not a bad thing, in fact we need sugar.
    It doesn't matter to me what you eat, I just hate when people try to tell others that sugar is bad for you, or fat is bad for you, etc. etc. etc.
  • abear007
    abear007 Posts: 84 Member
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    No one is telling you to not eat sugar, but it's not a bad thing,
    Whether or not it's a bad thing is dependent on the individual and how it affects them. You can say it's not a bad thing, but that would only apply to you, not necessarily to anyone else. In my experience and the experience of many others, it most definitely is a bad thing, whether it be so because of it's high amount of empty calories, it's triggering effect, it's lack of satiety, the insulin spike/crash it causes, etc.. I would add it's bad because of just how MUCH sugar is being added to so many things, and many people aren't even aware of how much they are ingesting. For instance, one 20 oz coke has 65g of sugar. That's 3 times the recommended daily allowance in just one food item. A fancy frappucino from Starbucks can have just as much - in just one drink. Add things like this to all the other sugar in the SAD and it's no wonder so many are obese/diabetic.
    in fact we need sugar.
    Human beings lived for tens of thousands of years without any refined sugar - or even much sugar at all, if they lived in colder climates.
    It doesn't matter to me what you eat, I just hate when people try to tell others that sugar is bad for you, or fat is bad for you, etc. etc. etc.
    Even so, for many people it's often true for a number of reasons. If it's not true for you, then you are one of the fortunate ones.
  • raj2208
    raj2208 Posts: 26
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    Thanks everyone for your posts. I'm not wanting to cut out all sugar or monitor it super closely, after the programme I watched I went onto MFP to see what my "daily goal" was set at, just out of curiosity. I do have fruit in my diet with my daily morning protein shake with frozen berries and banana, so that alone has a bit of natural sugar. I just wanted to make sure I was on the right track is all. I do have a sweet tooth and as my mother is extremely overweight (and mostly around the troublesome belly area), I want to avoid falling into the same traps as I get older. I just want to be healthy and not have my levels get out of wack. I also find as someone said on here, that when I eat sugar I get the craving to eat more - i.e. if I cut out chocolate from my diet for a few weeks, after the initial craving period I actually stop craving it altogether, but if I do eat it I want to eat MORE lol ;)

    I don't drink any soft drinks or sugary drinks, I don't have much processed foods either, so think I'm doing ok.

    Thanks for your help. :)
  • tennisdude2004
    tennisdude2004 Posts: 5,609 Member
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    Sugar is only the "Bad guy" if you have a medical issue like diabetes.

    Sorry you feel like you have to avoid sugar.
    The nice thing is, I get to decide what is "bad" for me, not someone else. For me, sugar is a useless, non-nutritional, high calorie carb that i just don't need, particularly in the huge quantities that many foods have in them. For me, it's a trigger food that greatly tempts me to eat more calories than I really need.

    If you're okay with eating lots of sugar everyday, feel free to ingest my share. :smile:

    Nice response!

    Sugar is not the bad guy, it's also not the good guy - it's a neutral guy.

    Apart from some quick energy (which you can get from other more nutritional sources) it does nothing for us. If you've covered your protein and micro nutrients and have cals to spare then have it and enjoy it.

    For anyone looking to cut cals to get into a calorie deficit for weight loss, sugar is without doubt the low hanging fruit (no pun intended) to reduce!
  • tennisdude2004
    tennisdude2004 Posts: 5,609 Member
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    Sugar is only the "Bad guy" if you have a medical issue like diabetes.

    Sorry you feel like you have to avoid sugar.
    The nice thing is, I get to decide what is "bad" for me, not someone else. For me, sugar is a useless, non-nutritional, high calorie carb that i just don't need, particularly in the huge quantities that many foods have in them. For me, it's a trigger food that greatly tempts me to eat more calories than I really need.

    If you're okay with eating lots of sugar everyday, feel free to ingest my share. :smile:

    No one is telling you to not eat sugar, but it's not a bad thing, in fact we need sugar.
    It doesn't matter to me what you eat, I just hate when people try to tell others that sugar is bad for you, or fat is bad for you, etc. etc. etc.

    We do not need dietary simple sugar in our diets - they serve a purpose and have a place in a balanced diet - but one thing it is not is a NEED!
  • raj2208
    raj2208 Posts: 26
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    Hi guys and girls...I watched an interesting documentary on the BBC Knowledge channel last night called The Truth about...Fat and Sugar. There were two doctors who were twins, one went on a high fat diet (with no sugar), and the other went on a high sugar diet( with no fat). All sorts of tests/experiemtns were carried out in regards to their blood sugar levels and how their bodies were metabolising fat and sugar and how their bodies handles exercise etc............at the end of the experiment which was a month, they had both lost weight, (but also muscle too), and surprisingly, it was the one on the high FAT diet who ended up being 2 points away from being pre-Diabetic, as his body had OVER produced insulin because it wasn't gettign any glucose/fructose in the diet.

    At the end of the day, after talking other specialists, including a Doctor who had been doing experiemnts on rats,it was discovered that when rats (and humans) eat ONLY sugar or ONLY fat, we have regulators in our brain which tell us when we have enough, and we stop - the rats did not put on any weight on high sugar AND high fat diets....they would only eat what they needed and would cut back on other food groups............BUT the big one was..................when they were given foods which were HALF fat and HALF sugar (like cheesecake as a prime example), their brains get confused (as ours do), and the regulators which tell you that you've had enough, do not kick in. They believe this is why we, humans worldwide, are getting obese, because of all the processed foods which are made up of that composition of half fat/half sugar (like donuts, ice cream, etc etc). NO NATURAL PRODUCT has this composition. So, they said really if you want to have a healthy diet, cut out those "treats" (that become an every day treat after a while - it sure does for me, the two rows of chocolate a day etc), and you will cut out those extra calories that are stopping you from reaching your goals.

    I am going to cut out my daily "treat" for the next month and see what happens !!! :)
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    It's grams.


    I don't track my sugar, i have no medical reason to track it.
    I replaced it with Fibre.

    This. Except that I'm from the US, so track fiber.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    In the UK it is recommended no more that 25 Grams of sugar in total recently if you have a sedentary lifestyle. So i tend to follow whatever MFP recommends and keep my combined sugar below that as well

    Out of curiosity, do you have a source for that? Who is doing the recommendation and what's the rationale?

    The recent WHO recommendations were added sugar (for example, excluding sugar from dairy and fruit), so to have such a low recommendation including dairy and fruit is unusual and I'd be interested in the reasoning.

    WHO's reasoning, like the AHA, is largely that added sugar doesn't come with nutrients and a failure to watch it often results in an overconsumption of calories. Thus, the main danger being warned against is mitigated by tracking, especially if one is careful to eat plenty of nutrient dense foods and a balanced diet, etc. I don't think there have been good reasons presented for reducing sugar (beyond specific health issues) if you know you aren't overeating and eat a nutrient-rich diet overall, and that's why I don't worry about it, although I did confirm that mine isn't higher than expected (none of these supposed hidden sources) and mostly from fruit and dairy, as I assumed would be the case.

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