question about natural sugar

sharesb · February 2011

My food diary keeps track of the sugar I intake. The majority of sugar I eat is all from fruit. I eat a lot of fruit and at the end of my day my daily sugar goal is way over. Is this okay? I am assuming that eating fruit is healthy, so do I really need to watch how much I intake if it is all natural sugars?

~ share

ashlee954 · February 2011

Unless you're diabetic I wouldn't worry about the natural sugars. MFP doesn't separate the natural from the added. Just monitor your added sugars.

skinnyme125 · February 2011

I would say only if you are diabetic, other than that it is really good for you. Since it is natural you body can process it. Stay away from fake sugars though they can cause all kinds of bad news. You might want to check with a Dr. or a diatician just to make sure though. Good luck.

Xandi · February 2011

My food diary keeps track of the sugar I intake. The majority of sugar I eat is all from fruit. I eat a lot of fruit and at the end of my day my daily sugar goal is way over. Is this okay? I am assuming that eating fruit is healthy, so do I really need to watch how much I intake if it is all natural sugars?

~ share

I am so glad you asked that.. I am always over.. It is nice to know that I am not doing to bad ( I was having a hard time figuring out why I had such a high sugar intake, I forgot about Fructose).

Lilander · February 2011

While natural sugars are better for you than refined sugars, its still best to stay within range becuase natural sugars can create the same "sugar high". I try to not eat more than 5-10g of sugar per meal. While its always easier to eat more fruit because its sweeter, I would switch out some of your fruits for veggies or eat smaller portions. Instead of a whole banana for breakfast, eat half with your cereal or yogurt and save the other half for mid morning snack.

Sparren · February 2011

I agree - I personally don't panic about my sugar intake, as the majority of it is naturally occuring in my food. As long as I'm not scoffing loads of sugary treats I don't worry about the sugar. I try and keep everything else under though - if I worried about the sugar then I wouldn't be able to eat anything!

You have to choose your battles in life, and naturally occuring sugars isn't on my list of wars!

KokomoJoe · February 2011

While natural sugars are better for you than refined sugars, its still best to stay within range becuase natural sugars can create the same "sugar high". I try to not eat more than 5-10g of sugar per meal. While its always easier to eat more fruit because its sweeter, I would switch out some of your fruits for veggies or eat smaller portions. Instead of a whole banana for breakfast, eat half with your cereal or yogurt and save the other half for mid morning snack.

I have started doing that. 1/2 banana on my oatmeal, freeze the other half to put into a smoothie. I would have normally used 2 there.

Still I am always way over because I love apples, pears, blueberries etc. I see articles saying sugar is sugar and it doesn't matter the source, and others that say natural sugars are ok. Right now I'm ridding of the artificial stuff, then I'll worry about the natural.

robertf57 · February 2011

Well, I'm not too certain I would agree with not being too concerned about large quantities of fructose in fruits because they are "natural". So call refined sugar is technically called sucrose and is actually two sugars tied together: Glucose ( the sugar found in our blood stream as a general energy source) and FRUCTOSE! The two sugars in sucrose are separated thoroughly by a specific enzyme in the human small intestine. That means we don't really absorb sucrose, we absorb 1 glucose and 1 fructose for each molecule of sucrose we take in. Fructose is metabolized differently than the glucose and can't be used by most tissues directly for energy like glucose can.

Anyway, too much sugar, from any source, is probably not a good thing whether it is sucrose, glucose, fructose or any other sugar!

Whether you are getting too much, you will have to determine. Are you seeing the result you want?

Good luck with you weight loss.

zanAspera · February 2011

You know, you have to be very careful, things are always more complicated than natural is good, artificial is bad. Crude oil is entirely natural, as are many fatal toxins and venoms, not to mention all natural small pox. These are all-natural things that you know are toxic and poisonous despite being "natural". And modern medicine is entirely artificial in it's lifesaving drugs and medicines. So the natural/artifical dicotomy doesn't resound with me at all.

Biochemically there is precious little difference between natural sugar (Sucrose) and High-Fructose Corn Syrup. Both are Di-Saccarides (literally two sugars) in this case a Glucose molecule bound to Fructose molecule. The only difference is how the two molecules are bound together. Now Glucose is immediately usable by every cell the body, it is the exchange currency of energy in the body. Fructose on the other paw is only processed in the liver, where it is is used to power the liver itself, build up glucogon which is reserve stores of energy in the body, and make fat. That's all it can do, so any additional Fructose after you've powered your liver and built up your stores of glucogon go directly to fat storage. Don't take my word for it, do your research. If you find a defense of the biochemistry of Fructose let me know.

High Fructose corn syrup is slightly worse that sucrose though as it's 55% Fructose and 45% Glucose. On the gripping paw, most fruits are loaded with free Fructose. Fructose got it's name because of it, it is literally fruit sugar. I love apples, but I've had to cut down to at most one per day because they have as much as 6g of free Fructose on top of 13g of Sucrose (which itself is half-Fructose), so that is 12.5 grams of Fructose in one apple, which is more than enough for my liver to make all the glucogon my body needs for energy reserves.

I still tend to have an apple a day, they are good for the teeth and have good fiber, but more than one is not going to help losing weight

size08 · February 2011

I use to eat loads and loads of fruit because I had a brain opperation and the Doctors adviced me that the sugar in fruit is so good for the brain and keeping headakes to an absolute all time low. but my brother adviced me, that fruit is just a snack food, it should not be treated as meal food. fruit dosn't give you enough energy it dose have sugar, and you can actually gain weight from too much fruit. I have actually proven this theroy, I was eatting loads of fruit for break-fast, then at this particular period in my life I took to eatting fruit in the afternoon and maybe at dinner time: result:- weight gain. I've conditioned my-self to eat less fruit for my breakfasts' and absolutely no more fruit for the day. I think to eat a variety of fruit over the week might be the answer., I'm still experimenting with that. but I will say:- I did fall ill recently due to complications of the brain opperation, and I just ate loads of fruit--too ill to eat anything esl....and eatting all that fruit really helped with my headakes.

question about natural sugar

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