Sugar Targets Unreasonable?

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Lizzgeorge77
Lizzgeorge77 Posts: 52 Member
in Food and Nutrition
I am a bit frustrated by the low sugar targets provided on MFP, particularly in combination with relatively high overall carb targets. Most days I find myself well under the carb target, but considerably over the sugar target - and I don't even eat many sweets! I've always read that women should limid ADDED sugars to 30 grams a day - in other words that natural sugars found in fruits and vegetables are OK. But MFP counts all sugars equally, which I think skews the picture somewhat.

For instance this morning I had an organic apple and a serving of plain nonfat organic Greek yogurt for breakfast, along with a cup of coffee. This totaled 245 calories and seems like a reasonably healthy meal to me. Yet with that meal alone I am officially OVER my sugar targets for the entire day (the apple has 25 grams, the yogurt 6, and the half and half in my coffee added 1 for a total of 32 grams of sugar).

I realize that I need to limit sugar, particularly with my body type (diabetes runs in my family and I'm an Apple shape, carrying most of my weight in the middle). And I even recognize that 30 grams of sugar a day is probably a good target. My frustration lies with the fact that this pretty much means that I have to eliminate all fruits (not to mention all desserts) from my diet entirely.

Thoughts/Comments/Ideas?

Replies

  • ZebraHead
    ZebraHead Posts: 15,207 Member
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    From what I've read here and other places fruit sugars are not generally a cause for concern.

    But: I don't know anything :smile:
  • 4theking
    4theking Posts: 1,196 Member
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    As zebra head said, fruits containing fructose don't raise blood sugar levels like sucrose does. If you are wanting to stick to the guidlines they gave you I would minus the fruit from it and not worry about it. From a weightloss standpoint it doesn't matter much.
  • hpsnickers1
    hpsnickers1 Posts: 2,783 Member
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    I started out creating the foods and subtracting out natural sugar since they count under Carbs but it got too tedious. So I just keep track of it. At the end of the day I subtract the natural sugars and see where I'm at. I have mine set at 30g and only count added sugar under that. Unless you put sugar in your coffee your breakfast was all natural sugar (that won't spike insulin levels).

    I have the Diabetes issue too - my father is on dialysis and my older brother was recently diagnosed (got his sugar levels back to normal in a couple months) . I go easy on fruit. I dropped my carbs to 40% (MFP sets it at 55%) and upped my protein to 40%.
  • SeasideOasis
    SeasideOasis Posts: 1,057 Member
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    I have some problems with the Protein myself. From many other places, I was told to eat more protein than my counter recommended (actual food, not just protein shakes/drinks), in relation to workouts. I think as long as you take everything in moderation, you should be fine. Just dont eat an entire bag of M&Ms ;)
  • rmhand
    rmhand Posts: 1,067 Member
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    I'm way over on sugar every day too. I don't worry about it much because its hard to keep it under and "fake sugars" like sucralose and aspertame give me headaches and are not good for you.
  • Paulette56
    Paulette56 Posts: 66 Member
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    I have recently been diagnosed as diabetic. Through diet alone I have brought my fasting blood glucose from 260 to under 100 (normal range). Ive been able to accomplish this by much internet research and staying away from processed sugar. What I've learned is that the sugars in fruits and vegetables are processed much differently in the body than the added sugars found in sweets. It is all still considered "sugar" by the MFP definition though. I have decided that as long as my total carbohydrates don't go over my personal target, I will use the sugar count in MFP as a referance only. I always go over the sugar target, but I look back to see where they came from. If it was mostly from fruit or dairy, then I don't worry about it. If was from the salad dressing or desert--then that's a problem. Bear in mind though, that even too much fruit can make you go over your carbs. Moderation in all things.
  • lil_miss_stephy
    lil_miss_stephy Posts: 13
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    I felt the same way, so much so that it sent me into a "diet rage" on day 2. After a PEP talk from my cousin and she explained to me like others have here about natural sugars vs processed sugars I felt much better =) Diabetes runs in my family so even though I typically have LOW blood sugar (borderline hypoglycemic) I still keep an eye on it. I wish MFP would differentiate between the natural sugars and processed.
  • Rozzie75
    Rozzie75 Posts: 20
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    I agree that MFP should diffrenciate between natural sugars and added sugar. I hardly ever go over on carbs but most days o go over on sugar.
  • fteale
    fteale Posts: 5,310 Member
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    I don't find it so, but I probably eat very little sugar compared to most. There should be a distinction between natural and processed sugar.

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