Sugar!

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  • Dave198lbs
    Dave198lbs Posts: 8,810 Member
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    aeb09 wrote: »
    Keep in mind that products marketed as "low fat" will ALWAYS be high in sugar - they have to add sugar in order to improve the flavor from the lack of fat. I'd bet your yogurt is low fat or fat free without looking at it. Avoid "low fat" products - buy the full fat versions and you'll see your sugar intake decrease. Fat does not make you fat, either.

    Also... your body does not distinguish between natural and added sugars, so you still do need to watch your sugar intake from fruit. Any nutrients in fruit can be found in vegetables for a fraction of the sugar.

    good post. I will never understand why so many are so quick to brag about all the sugar they eat. Sugar is not the devil but all the sugar that is added to so many foods (like the low and no fat versions of otherwise great food like greek yogurt) can easily be avoided by buying the full of good fat variety. Unfortunately, many stores sell mainly the no fat versions because people buy it more than the full fat versions.
  • tennisdude2004
    tennisdude2004 Posts: 5,609 Member
    edited November 2014
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    Are you trying to cut back on sugar to keep yourself in a calorie deficit! or for some other reason?

    If you are cutting back for a calorie deficit, sugar is definitely the low hanging fruit (excuse the pun). There's not much wrong with sugar (in fact nothing wrong in moderation), but apart from offering some quick energy for the body it does or gives little else, so if you are going to cut it purely to keep under cals - well good choice!

    If you are cutting back for medical reasons, well I would suggest the quick fix is to cut back on the things you definitely know have added sugar (try half a kit kat, or a kit kat and no choc top, whatever that is).

    Other things you can do is to reduce your fruit intake (if you eat a lot that is) and increase you veg intake!

    Anyway good luck OP!
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
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    aeb09 wrote: »
    Keep in mind that products marketed as "low fat" will ALWAYS be high in sugar - they have to add sugar in order to improve the flavor from the lack of fat. I'd bet your yogurt is low fat or fat free without looking at it. Avoid "low fat" products - buy the full fat versions and you'll see your sugar intake decrease. Fat does not make you fat, either.

    Also... your body does not distinguish between natural and added sugars, so you still do need to watch your sugar intake from fruit. Any nutrients in fruit can be found in vegetables for a fraction of the sugar.

    Not true. Lots of low fat and fat free dairy is just dairy (read the ingredients) and tastes fine.

    Dairy is always going to have sugar because lactose.

    Nothing wrong with full fat dairy, which I eat too, but this claim that skim or low fat has sugar added is just not true, IME. Flavored yogurt will have either added sugar or sugar from fruit, or both. I've never seen skim milk or low fat cottage cheese with added sugar and plain Fage 0 percent doesn't have it but some brand of course may. Check your label.

    Also, if one truly eats mostly whole foods and understands the packaged products one buys, it's hard to accidently eat sugar. (Not saying you must at all, but it's an easy way to address the issue.)

    I also agree that sugar isn't that big a deal if you track calories and macros and micros. You might want to limit some things that have a lot (although not all, I never limit fruit and dairy) but probably not simply due to the sugar unless you have insulin problems or the like. I don't so this anti sugar thing seems over the top to me.
  • earlnabby
    earlnabby Posts: 8,171 Member
    edited November 2014
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    Dave198lbs wrote: »
    aeb09 wrote: »
    Keep in mind that products marketed as "low fat" will ALWAYS be high in sugar - they have to add sugar in order to improve the flavor from the lack of fat. I'd bet your yogurt is low fat or fat free without looking at it. Avoid "low fat" products - buy the full fat versions and you'll see your sugar intake decrease. Fat does not make you fat, either.

    Also... your body does not distinguish between natural and added sugars, so you still do need to watch your sugar intake from fruit. Any nutrients in fruit can be found in vegetables for a fraction of the sugar.

    good post. I will never understand why so many are so quick to brag about all the sugar they eat. Sugar is not the devil but all the sugar that is added to so many foods (like the low and no fat versions of otherwise great food like greek yogurt) can easily be avoided by buying the full of good fat variety. Unfortunately, many stores sell mainly the no fat versions because people buy it more than the full fat versions.

    You are wrong. Non and low fat yogurt only has added sweetener (either real or artificial) if they are flavored. Plain has nothing added. The label on my Roundy's (local brand) Non-fat Greek yogurt lists "Cultured, pasteurized skim milk. Contains 5 active live cultures including S. thermophilis, . bulgaricus, acidophilus, bifidus, and L. casei". 1 cup (227 g) has 9 g sugars which are the naturally occurring milk sugars.

    Manufactured foods that are low fat versions of regular foods, like salad dressings, DO frequently have added sugar for flavor.

    ETA: I am not anti sugar or anti fat. I need to cut my calories and have made choices as to where the cuts come from. One choice is to cut fat from my dairy so I can get more of it from different cuts of meat (instead of living on chicken and turkey) or full fat cheese and whole eggs. I choose to cut added sugar so I can have more fruit for my calorie allotment.

  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
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    aeb09 wrote: »
    Keep in mind that products marketed as "low fat" will ALWAYS be high in sugar - they have to add sugar in order to improve the flavor from the lack of fat. I'd bet your yogurt is low fat or fat free without looking at it. Avoid "low fat" products - buy the full fat versions and you'll see your sugar intake decrease. Fat does not make you fat, either.
    Good reminder. Foods that are made low fat foods are usually pretty crappy "food" all the way around, but yes, they typically do have more sugar to replace the fat.

    Part of why, if limiting sugar is important to you, you need to read labels. Recently one of my favorite local tortillas swapped lard for high fructose corn syrup. Now they are my former favorite tortillas.

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