sugar

What have you eaten so far? Sugar is unavoidable in foods containing carbohydrates...because they are sugars! Not all are created equally, though. Table sugar (sucrose- glucose and fructose) and pure glucose should be eaten sparingly as they cause quick spikes in blood sugar because they require little to no processing. Milk sugars (lactose- which is glucose and galactose) don't have the same effect since they're disaccharides and digest slower than simple sugars, so they don't need to be limited as much. Fruit sugars (fructose + glucose) also cause a slow increase in blood sugar when you eat the whole fruit (rather than juice) to get the fiber as well. Sugars in whole grains and tubors (starch) are polysaccharides, which are basically a bunch of little glucose molecules stuck together; they digest slowly and don't increase blood sugar quickly either. There are a ton of different sugars out there, and trying to limit ALL your sugars would be very difficult. Limit your simple sugars (namely, glucose, which is in table sugar and higher in some fruits) but don't worry as much about your complex carbohydrates.