How do i cut my sugar!
ShaeSweetness
Posts: 61 Member
I know this seems like an obvious answer. My question is mainly pertaining to fruits. I'm trying mostly to cut fat and sugar from my diet. I've been leaving out most processed sugars like cakes, and candies. My question though is that i go over my sugar goals alot because i eat so much fruit in the day. Is that sugar that i should also be trying to avoid? What about orange juice? I loveeeeee orange juice but it has 39g of sugar for each of those little personal containers. Anyone have any opinions about sugars in fruits? Or just advice in general?
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Sugar is a carb, track your carbs. If you hit your carb goal, there should be no reason to track sugar separately.
Also, not sure why you are cutting fat out of your diet. Diet is a vital macronutrient and needed for hormone balance, vitamin absorption among other things. Dietary fat does not equal body fat and does not make a person fat.0 -
With a knife! And then put it on a plate and eat up!
Okay, jokes aside, there's really no reason to cut fat and sugar unless a doctor has told you to. As long as you are eating in a calorie deficit, you will lose weight. If you're going off of MFP's sugar recommendation, it is notoriously low. Besides, fruit has some good nutrients, why pass that up? Sugar is just a carb. Overeating on any food will cause weight gain due to a calorie surplus, so as long as you are eating in a deficit, I see no reason not to have fat, sugar, and other foods you love. including processed sugar, because all sugar is the same (some will argue that all sugar is not equal, but I believe for weight loss purposes it is)0 -
I'm not cutting fat and sugar completely! Not at all! I meant it in a way that im cutting fast foods, fried foods, im cutting cakes and cookies and things as best i cant, with the occasional slip ups ofcourse haha! thanks for the responses!0
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Check out Trop50 orange juice. Half the sugar.
Natural fruits will have sugar but they are packaged so nicely with fiber and vitamins. So relax when it comes to fruit.0 -
As Hornsby said sugar is just a carb.
Also, do not worry about sugars from fruits. When people talk negative about sugars, it is not the ones related to fruit. It is your processed sugars, but again, sugar is just a carb.0 -
I don't track sugar, just total carbs. Rather than fruit juice, eat whole fruit. You're right, there's a lot of sugar in orange juice and nearly none of the fiber you get from eating it whole.0
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Have a serving of fruit or two per day...not a bunch of fruit. But really, if your sugar intake isn't over the top and you're not eating a cake and washing it down with a 40 ounce big gulp and don't have a medical condition, I wouldn't worry about it.
Unless they've changed it (I wouldn't know since I don't bother tracking my sugar) the sugar recommendation on MFP is for added sugar...pretty much if you have an apple you're going to go over the sugar recommendation since it's not really applicable to naturally occurring sugars...which is kind of stupid because sugar is sugar...but my understanding is that it is meant to help people watch their consumption of "junk" foods, not to make you afraid of whole, nutrient dense foods like fruit and veg.
Also, where this is concerned a little common sense goes a long way....0 -
There is no reason to cut fat from your diet. You need dietary fat to live; you do not need dietary carbs/sugar to live.
Eat more protein. Eat more fat. Feel more full. Lose weight easily.0 -
But sugar is sugar.As Hornsby said sugar is just a carb.
Also, do not worry about sugars from fruits. When people talk negative about sugars, it is not the ones related to fruit. It is your processed sugars, but again, sugar is just a carb.
Unless you have medical reasons to avoid it, eat all the sugarz.
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I don't track sugar, just total carbs. Rather than fruit juice, eat whole fruit. You're right, there's a lot of sugar in orange juice and nearly none of the fiber you get from eating it whole.
Agreed, juices can really pack alot of calories and sugar in a small punch. Whole fruits, or as a great healthy alternative try making veggie smoothies with an apple or orange for flavors! Big quantities, low calories and packed with nutrients!!! Spinach with an apple for flavor is great, pinapple is also a great mixer!0 -
Unless you have blood sugar issues, or a history of high blood sugar, you don't have to be too concerned about fruit intake. However, fruit juice is high in sugar and calories, with no fiber to slow down the sugar breakdown in your body. It really is no different than drinking Koolaid, as far as nutritional value. You can blow your calories very quickly and be starving if you drink a lot of juice. Focus on getting in your proteins and healthy fats, then you can spend your carb allowance on whatever you want. Just look at your choices. would you rather have a small glass of orange juice, or a donut?
Personally, I don't want to drink my calories, as I would rather eat them. But each person's choice is different.0 -
Like dis?0
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ilu.hollydubs85 wrote: »Like dis?
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Sugar from cane is processed differently than fruit sugar. It is not advisable to cut out the fruit because it contains a lot of vitamins and minerals and antioxidants that keep diseases like cancer away! Having said that, I always allow fruit in my diet it no processed sugar or cane sugar. Steer away from too many bananas because they are high in calories. Apple's are a great appetite suppressant and goes good with peanut butter if u like that.0
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hollydubs85 wrote: »Like dis?
Ahhhhhh yes....that is the answer i've been looking for in this whole post! Thank you!
To everyone else who tried to match this lovely ladys answer...you all did well and provided me with great information...but i was looking to know how to actually physically cut down the sugar!
hehe kidding! Thanks for the advice everyone! Its all great!
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ShaeTheSweetest wrote: »hollydubs85 wrote: »Like dis?
Ahhhhhh yes....that is the answer i've been looking for in this whole post! Thank you!
To everyone else who tried to match this lovely ladys answer...you all did well and provided me with great information...but i was looking to know how to actually physically cut down the sugar!
hehe kidding! Thanks for the advice everyone! Its all great!
Too funny! I love that OP didn't freak out about it
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acmiranda7 wrote: »Sugar from cane is processed differently than fruit sugar. It is not advisable to cut out the fruit because it contains a lot of vitamins and minerals and antioxidants that keep diseases like cancer away! Having said that, I always allow fruit in my diet it no processed sugar or cane sugar. Steer away from too many bananas because they are high in calories. Apple's are a great appetite suppressant and goes good with peanut butter if u like that.
You're on the right track but this is not true. You are correct that your body processes the two types of sugar, fructose and glucose, differently. However, whether it's in a piece of fruit, your soda or a pastry, the sugar in those foods is made up of both of those components. Neither type of sugar is better or worse for you, unless you are a diabetic, perhaps. Fructose breaks down in your liver and doesn’t provoke an insulin response. Glucose starts to break down in the stomach and requires the release of insulin into the bloodstream to be metabolized completely. However, the ratios of fructose and glucose are pretty much the same in both fruit and table sugar. Most fruits are 40 to 55 percent fructose and table sugar (aka sucrose) is 50/50. That's a similar enough ratio that your body is going to process them pretty much the same.
You are also correct that fruit offers good stuff like vitamins, fiber, antioxidants and water, while candy and desserts are nutritionally void. Fruit also tends to have less sugar by volume so it's overall a better choice nutritionally but its sugar is not substantially different from cane sugar.0 -
ShaeTheSweetest wrote: »My question is mainly pertaining to fruits. I'm trying mostly to cut fat and sugar from my diet. I've been leaving out most processed sugars like cakes, and candies. My question though is that i go over my sugar goals alot because i eat so much fruit in the day. Is that sugar that i should also be trying to avoid? What about orange juice? I loveeeeee orange juice but it has 39g of sugar for each of those little personal containers. Anyone have any opinions about sugars in fruits? Or just advice in general?
I would not focus on "fat" or "sugar" at all. I think there are good reasons to cut stuff like transfats out and to try and make sure you get a good variety of fats from sources like olive oil and avocado and the like, but there's a reason why it's generally recommended to get a decent percentage of your calories from fat and what I'd do is experiment to see what makes you feel best. There was a discussion just the other day about the fat recommendation being .35 grams per lb of bodyweight, and while I haven't personally sorted through all the evidence there I do find that aiming for about that amount or even a little higher--I like about 30% of my total calories from fat--works well for me. When I largely cut fat out of meals I'm not as satisfied and if I eat something like oatmeal and fruit for breakfast that naturally has little fat I always feel better if I add some nuts or dairy with fat or smoked salmon or the like on the side.
Similarly, the recommendations you find from reputable sources like the WHO or AHA about sugar focus on ADDED sugar and the reasoning isn't that sugar itself is bad for you (even in the refined forms) but that it's so commonly associated with low nutrient and high calorie treats (the majority of calories in which may not be from sugar, though), that eating too much added sugar often goes along with eating too many calories and too few nutrients. As a result, if you are watching your diet and understand what you are eating, it's probably not so necessary to track sugar. (I often track fiber instead.)
That aside, the reasoning for watching sugar doesn't apply to intrinsic sugars like those in fruit and dairy, which are specifically exempted from the WHO's proposed limit, for example. That's because eating too much fruit would only be an issue if you were eating it at the expense of other things (like veggies or protein) or eating so much you were eating too many calories, both of which would be rare (and which you'd know already by looking at your calories and protein counters).
The WHO does include juice sugar as "added," however, because they, like sugar in cookies and the like, are quite easy to overeat, since the fiber is removed, and because most people find calories that you drink less satiating, so there's a greater thread of them contributing to obesity. I personally choose not to drink juice except on rare occasions because I don't like drinking calories (don't find them satiating), but if you really enjoy juice I think it's fine so long as you track calories, and I'd focus more on overall carbs, fat, and protein, and fiber numbers, and not sugar alone.
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Well done from cutting simple sugars!
If you love orange juice don't buy it already made cuz it's not that natural as we think, they add lots of sugar and other chemicals that out body doesn't need, so try to make a real fresh orange juice at home, it 's nicer,natural and sweet as well (you know that that sugar is a good one).
Remember, fruits has sugar but that sugar is the one our body needs (you found it in complex carbohydrates such as fruits,wholegrain,oats,vegetables,...) what our body doesn't need that much are the simple carbohydrates (simple sugar-you know all that bad one..)
And as well, if you have a little problem on cutting down sugar in general you can try on eating protein bars instead (made from peanut butter, hazelnut, almonds or any- those taste like a dessert as well but healthy and make you full. 0 -
alealessia_13 wrote: »they add lots of sugar and other chemicals that out body doesn't need, so try to make a real fresh orange juice at home, it 's nicer,natural and sweet as well (you know that that sugar is a good one).
People always say stuff like this as if it were not possible to find no other ingredients added juices (or tomatoes or yogurt or whatever it is). It's actually quite easy to find out what ingredients are in your juice--read the label.
Also, while I happen to agree that freshly squeezed orange juice is tasty, it's not just like eating an orange (and this is why juicing is a trend I don't care for). You are removing the fiber and concentrating the sugar/calories in a much less volume, less filling (for many) package. As for your body needing one kind of sugar but not the other, not true. The fruit juice just happens to have various vitamins also--but that has nothing to do with the sugar.0 -
@alealessia_13 How is this better than an apple?
Sweetening comes from a sugar alcohol (Erhythritol), Sucralose, and Stevia.
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I'm confused about how the Quest bar came into this, but isn't this one of those it depends on the context questions? If I've had no protein all day a Quest bar wouldn't actually be my favored protein source, but I'd probably take it over the apple, depending on what else I'd eaten that day. Has nothing to do with sugar.
On the other hand, if all I'd had was steak, I might take apple juice (which I usually avoid) over the Quest bar, although I might prefer the fiber in the Quest bar, who knows. (Luckily this is not a situation that I let myself get in.)
If I'd had a relatively balanced day and had the right amount of calories left and was dying for a Quest bar, I'd have the Quest bar, and same with the apple--both are tasty, both seem to hit the spot at different times. (Of course, you picked the one Quest bar I quite like.) ;-)0 -
I'm responding to alealessa's suggestion to eat a protein bar. Here's a person eating real fruit and worrying about it, and the suggestion is to eat a protein bar instead?0
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Ah! I was too focused on the part of her post I responded to that I totally missed that. Never mind. ;-)0
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True. Also, there are brands of orange juice out there that are just juice from concentrate and water. They're more expensive, of course, but basically the same thing as juicing your own oranges. Frankly, that type of juice may be even better and tastier because the oranges you buy in the grocery store aren't "juicing" oranges which have been cultivated to provide more juice per orange and a specific sugar ratio. Have you ever cut open a juicing orange? They make a huge mess because the juice leaks out everywhere! Compare that to the oranges you put in your kids' lunchboxes.lemurcat12 wrote: »alealessia_13 wrote: »they add lots of sugar and other chemicals that out body doesn't need, so try to make a real fresh orange juice at home, it 's nicer,natural and sweet as well (you know that that sugar is a good one).
People always say stuff like this as if it were not possible to find no other ingredients added juices (or tomatoes or yogurt or whatever it is). It's actually quite easy to find out what ingredients are in your juice--read the label.
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That's what I was thinking!ShaeTheSweetest wrote: »hollydubs85 wrote: »Like dis?
Ahhhhhh yes....that is the answer i've been looking for in this whole post! Thank you!
To everyone else who tried to match this lovely ladys answer...you all did well and provided me with great information...but i was looking to know how to actually physically cut down the sugar!
hehe kidding! Thanks for the advice everyone! Its all great!
Too funny! I love that OP didn't freak out about it
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Haha she had a great comment...i could never be mad at that! Seems like there are some conflicting ideas here but they all were helpful. I'll do some more research on the topic! Thanks guys0
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Cut the processed OJ. I eat fruit in moderation as well. If you're trying to lose weight then cutting processed sugar really seems to help me. The less I eat, the less I crave it!0
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I don't pay attention to my sugar. I don't really have a reason to watch it. (No health issues) if you are trying to keep it low I would suggest just eating a couple pieces of fruit per day and more veggies instead. Sliced cucumber is a good snack.
Also some fruits are a lot higher in sugar, like bananas and watermelon. (I think?) I have heard people say to only eat one piece of fruit per day but I think that is dumb! Fruits are healthy I see no reason to cut back on them if they fit into your calories/macros.0
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