Could someone please set us straight about sugar?

Many people here are concerned and saying their Sugar columns are in the red every day. I consume about 1 cup of fruit a day, 4 oz of 1% milk, 1/4 cup non-fat plain yogurt, 8 oz of low-sodium V8, maybe a bit of 3 bean salad, tomatoes, lettuce and other vegs which all show small amounts of sugar. I'm always in the red by about -16 to -25, sometimes more. I don't drink soda or eat processed foods, and I rarely add sugar to a recipe.

I know a lot of this has to do with the Glycemic Index, but I think a lot of us are confused as to why our Sugar columns are over the top. Since there isn't a breakdown in the MFP "Nutrients Tracked" with the different types of sugar, it's difficult to know what to do. I think many people are concerned about eating too much fruit. If there's someone out there who could explain this in detail, it would much appreciated.

dont worry bout fruit sugar! it comes with fiber to help break it down. milk, v8, yogurt i wouldnt wanna get in red with

Categorizing
Carbohydrates are categorized into simple or complex and are classified depending on the number of sugar molecules they contain. Simple carbs like table sugar, fructose --- sugar found naturally in fruit --- and lactose --- natural sugar in milk --- have only one molecule and are the fastest and easiest for the body to break down. Complex carbohydrates are made up of three or more molecules and take longer for the body to convert into usable form.

Simple Carbs
All carbohydrates are broken down into simple sugar molecules and converted into glucose, Harvard experts explain. Simple carbs like white bread and white rice are weight-loss villains. They are broken down quickly and cause your blood sugar to spike. This leads to the release of a high amount of insulin. According to the Mayo Clinic, insulin tells cells to store glucose, which, if not used as energy right away, gets stored as fat for later use. This fat storage can lead to weight gain.

Complex Carbs
Your body must break complex carbohydrates down from multi-molecules to just one, which takes longer. This longer process keeps the blood sugar at a steady level. The National Institutes of Health recommends that most of the carbs you eat be complex, because they provide vitamins, minerals and fiber along with calories. Good sources of complex carbs include whole grains found in breads, rice and cereal, as well as vegetables, beans and lentils.

Fiber
Fiber is found in complex carbohydrates and is either soluble or insoluble. You get soluble fiber through vegetables, brown rice and oats. Soluble fiber then attaches to fat in the intestine, which causes your body to eliminate the fat as waste instead of absorbing it. Soluble fiber helps lower bad cholesterol and can help regulate blood sugar, Harvard explains. Insoluble fiber cannot be digested and pushes through the intestines, helping to regulate the system --- and possibly help prevent colon cancer. Both kinds of fiber play an important role in weight loss because they are bulky and helps you feel fuller with fewer calories.

Weight Loss
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology reports that to lose weight, a person must take in fewer calories than he burns. These calories can come from any of the macronutrients, including carbohydrates. You must get enough energy through food, MIT continues, because once the body uses its energy stores, it starts burning muscles; this can affect your strength and exercise ability, which hurts weight-loss efforts. Choosing complex carbohydrates can provide the body with the energy it needs for weight loss while keeping the blood sugar at a steady level, avoiding spikes and excess fat

Some people are of the school that carbs are not good for weight loss. IMO, a calorie is a calorie, and that's what matters, for weight loss. Of course, for overall health, you need a good balance of carbs, protein, and fats (there are some people who would argue there on the carbs, too, but in general most nutritionists agree). As long as most of your carbs come from complex carbs and natural sugars (fruit, dairy, etc), and you are getting enough protein and the "good" fat, you should be okay even if carbs are a bit over.

But a lot of it is opinion. There's a bunch of different diets out there that have different views on sugar/carbs.

Categorizing
Carbohydrates are categorized into simple or complex and are classified depending on the number of sugar molecules they contain. Simple carbs like table sugar, fructose --- sugar found naturally in fruit --- and lactose --- natural sugar in milk --- have only one molecule and are the fastest and easiest for the body to break down. Complex carbohydrates are made up of three or more molecules and take longer for the body to convert into usable form.

Simple Carbs
All carbohydrates are broken down into simple sugar molecules and converted into glucose, Harvard experts explain. Simple carbs like white bread and white rice are weight-loss villains. They are broken down quickly and cause your blood sugar to spike. This leads to the release of a high amount of insulin. According to the Mayo Clinic, insulin tells cells to store glucose, which, if not used as energy right away, gets stored as fat for later use. This fat storage can lead to weight gain.

Complex Carbs
Your body must break complex carbohydrates down from multi-molecules to just one, which takes longer. This longer process keeps the blood sugar at a steady level. The National Institutes of Health recommends that most of the carbs you eat be complex, because they provide vitamins, minerals and fiber along with calories. Good sources of complex carbs include whole grains found in breads, rice and cereal, as well as vegetables, beans and lentils.

Fiber
Fiber is found in complex carbohydrates and is either soluble or insoluble. You get soluble fiber through vegetables, brown rice and oats. Soluble fiber then attaches to fat in the intestine, which causes your body to eliminate the fat as waste instead of absorbing it. Soluble fiber helps lower bad cholesterol and can help regulate blood sugar, Harvard explains. Insoluble fiber cannot be digested and pushes through the intestines, helping to regulate the system --- and possibly help prevent colon cancer. Both kinds of fiber play an important role in weight loss because they are bulky and helps you feel fuller with fewer calories.

Weight Loss
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology reports that to lose weight, a person must take in fewer calories than he burns. These calories can come from any of the macronutrients, including carbohydrates. You must get enough energy through food, MIT continues, because once the body uses its energy stores, it starts burning muscles; this can affect your strength and exercise ability, which hurts weight-loss efforts. Choosing complex carbohydrates can provide the body with the energy it needs for weight loss while keeping the blood sugar at a steady level, avoiding spikes and excess fat

this is a video about sugar but its long 89 mins http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

Categorizing
Carbohydrates are categorized into simple or complex and are classified depending on the number of sugar molecules they contain. Simple carbs like table sugar, fructose --- sugar found naturally in fruit --- and lactose --- natural sugar in milk --- have only one molecule and are the fastest and easiest for the body to break down. Complex carbohydrates are made up of three or more molecules and take longer for the body to convert into usable form.

Simple Carbs
All carbohydrates are broken down into simple sugar molecules and converted into glucose, Harvard experts explain. Simple carbs like white bread and white rice are weight-loss villains. They are broken down quickly and cause your blood sugar to spike. This leads to the release of a high amount of insulin. According to the Mayo Clinic, insulin tells cells to store glucose, which, if not used as energy right away, gets stored as fat for later use. This fat storage can lead to weight gain.

Complex Carbs
Your body must break complex carbohydrates down from multi-molecules to just one, which takes longer. This longer process keeps the blood sugar at a steady level. The National Institutes of Health recommends that most of the carbs you eat be complex, because they provide vitamins, minerals and fiber along with calories. Good sources of complex carbs include whole grains found in breads, rice and cereal, as well as vegetables, beans and lentils.

Fiber
Fiber is found in complex carbohydrates and is either soluble or insoluble. You get soluble fiber through vegetables, brown rice and oats. Soluble fiber then attaches to fat in the intestine, which causes your body to eliminate the fat as waste instead of absorbing it. Soluble fiber helps lower bad cholesterol and can help regulate blood sugar, Harvard explains. Insoluble fiber cannot be digested and pushes through the intestines, helping to regulate the system --- and possibly help prevent colon cancer. Both kinds of fiber play an important role in weight loss because they are bulky and helps you feel fuller with fewer calories.

Weight Loss
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology reports that to lose weight, a person must take in fewer calories than he burns. These calories can come from any of the macronutrients, including carbohydrates. You must get enough energy through food, MIT continues, because once the body uses its energy stores, it starts burning muscles; this can affect your strength and exercise ability, which hurts weight-loss efforts. Choosing complex carbohydrates can provide the body with the energy it needs for weight loss while keeping the blood sugar at a steady level, avoiding spikes and excess fat

fructose dont break down easy

Fructose goes straight to the liver to be used as muscle glycogen. During exercise and as recovery, fructose gets used immediately. There was just an article in the NY Times Health section about 2 weeks ago.

The amounts on MFP are a guideline. If you are eating natural sugars, I wouldn't worry about it if you know your body responds well to it. Personally, I tend to stall out when I'm consuming too much sugar/carbs of ANY kind, so I have to limit it. But my fiance can eat refined carbs/sugar and natural ones all day long and as long as his calories are good he'll still drop.

Interesting topic.

I don't hit my "sugar" goals. I think it's because I'm just eating mostly fresh stuff and not processed stuff. Not for brownie points. Just because, I guess.

I like fruit, and I think I'm heavy on it, but it doesn't seem to spike my sugar column. I don't think I've ever gone over. I tend to need to watch my protein consumption, but I'm not trying to protein-load. I tend to avoid breads and pastas because they seem way nutrient rich and (for me) they trigger the need to eat more than I should - I imagine it's the sugar rush.

As far as the body is concerned, as others have shown - sugar is sugar, in the sense that nothing you eat can be used until it's broken down into glucose. And, too much glucose at one time (from the rapid break down of a simple carbohydrate) can spike your blood sugar. So for what it's worth, it's better to moderate the simple stuff - table sugar, corn syrup, honey, white bread, rice, and so on - with denser carbs such as real whole grains and the like. Be careful of packaging - some "wheat bread" is white bread with caramel coloring).

It's good that you're paying attention. I'd try to find some foods that are denser in complex carbs, and bring in other food types to balance the diet. If you eat a balanced diet, the numbers won't spike. It might take some work because there are probably foods you just love which are derailing your efforts to be under the sugar goal.

Categorizing
Carbohydrates are categorized into simple or complex and are classified depending on the number of sugar molecules they contain. Simple carbs like table sugar, fructose --- sugar found naturally in fruit --- and lactose --- natural sugar in milk --- have only one molecule and are the fastest and easiest for the body to break down. Complex carbohydrates are made up of three or more molecules and take longer for the body to convert into usable form.

Simple Carbs
All carbohydrates are broken down into simple sugar molecules and converted into glucose, Harvard experts explain. Simple carbs like white bread and white rice are weight-loss villains. They are broken down quickly and cause your blood sugar to spike. This leads to the release of a high amount of insulin. According to the Mayo Clinic, insulin tells cells to store glucose, which, if not used as energy right away, gets stored as fat for later use. This fat storage can lead to weight gain.

Complex Carbs
Your body must break complex carbohydrates down from multi-molecules to just one, which takes longer. This longer process keeps the blood sugar at a steady level. The National Institutes of Health recommends that most of the carbs you eat be complex, because they provide vitamins, minerals and fiber along with calories. Good sources of complex carbs include whole grains found in breads, rice and cereal, as well as vegetables, beans and lentils.

Fiber
Fiber is found in complex carbohydrates and is either soluble or insoluble. You get soluble fiber through vegetables, brown rice and oats. Soluble fiber then attaches to fat in the intestine, which causes your body to eliminate the fat as waste instead of absorbing it. Soluble fiber helps lower bad cholesterol and can help regulate blood sugar, Harvard explains. Insoluble fiber cannot be digested and pushes through the intestines, helping to regulate the system --- and possibly help prevent colon cancer. Both kinds of fiber play an important role in weight loss because they are bulky and helps you feel fuller with fewer calories.

Weight Loss
The Massachusetts Institute of Technology reports that to lose weight, a person must take in fewer calories than he burns. These calories can come from any of the macronutrients, including carbohydrates. You must get enough energy through food, MIT continues, because once the body uses its energy stores, it starts burning muscles; this can affect your strength and exercise ability, which hurts weight-loss efforts. Choosing complex carbohydrates can provide the body with the energy it needs for weight loss while keeping the blood sugar at a steady level, avoiding spikes and excess fat

this is a video about sugar but its long 89 mins http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM

Switching to full fat dairy products will help reduce your sugar intake. Eating fat does not make you fat.

Huh?

As for the sugar numbers being in the red, I think it's just a flaw in the MFP system that we don't get to see a breakdown between sugars that we are getting from foods, and sugar that we are getting by *adding* it to our foods....and that's the key difference. Perhaps someday MFP can improve the system to show us this (although I imagine it might be hard because packaged products don't give us this specific of a breakdown eiteher)....or if not, at least we know all which sugars are okay and don't need to be worried about unless we have specific health issues, and which are not okay.

No fat and low fat products contain more sugar.

That is certainly true for some (processed/packaged) foods like salad dressing, bread, even yogurts, and cheeses, etc (because they use sugar to replace the flavor that is lost by removing the fat)....but not for "whole" foods. There, I have to disagree with you.

Example:
Fat Free Milk, Sugars 12g
Whole Milk, Sugars 12g

I think the take-away here is that there really is no SIMPLE answer. If losing weight were easy and there was a perfect nutrition plan to follow, we would all be doing it. Cause, as I told my mother-in-law the other day, "I am not generally known for being stupid "

If we are looking at it from a glycemic index point of view then there is nothing wrong with eating pineapple as long as we consume cottage cheese with it because the fat and protein slow the glucose absorption and decrease the effect it has on your blood sugar. So looking at cummulative sugar at the end of the day really doesn't show how your blood sugar was affected.

But I am a little disturbed at how much sugar is in skim milk (or any milk). If I tried to keep my sugars in the recommended rage, I would have a very hard time eating my allotted calories because even the healthy foods I'm eating seem to be pretty "sugar" heavy.

abc, I did watch the video last week, thanks for posting it again. Everyone should watch it!. Maybe you're talking about HFCS, high fructose corn syrup, not just plain fructose. I would imagine there's a difference.

ok i dont like that word fructose lol ur right its not the samething as hfcs.

Fructose is natural fruit sugar. HFCS is a blend of fructose and glucose.