Good sugars and Bad sugars in relation to adding it to the food diary

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LisaFL15
LisaFL15 Posts: 2 Member
Hello all, My husband and I are new and have been tracking our meals for 2 weeks :) we're doing pretty good but are finding our sugar intake is next to nothing. We then figured out the sugar is "added sugar" ?? Our question is, When the diary tracks the sugar, even if it's good sugar from fruits, it adds it in and we go over almost every day. So, does the program have good sugars and bad sugars or are they all added into one? because if it's all added into one we will be over every day. Are fruits good sugars? Maybe a section for fruit sugars and 'added' sugars? For instance a med apple gives us 24 sugars and a women's intake of sugars, according to the diary should be 25 g. Do I just go over every day and eat the required amt of fruit?

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  • Sabine_Stroehm
    Sabine_Stroehm Posts: 19,263 Member
    edited May 2015
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    The app does not differentiate among types of sugar.
    Eat your fruit and don't fret it.
    If you want to learn more about sugars and your health, the WHO had recommendations, on "free sugars".
    A new WHO guideline recommends adults and children reduce their daily intake of free sugars to less than 10% of their total energy intake. A further reduction to below 5% or roughly 25 grams (6 teaspoons) per day would provide additional health benefits. Free sugars refer to monosaccharides (such as glucose, fructose) and disaccharides (such as sucrose or table sugar) added to foods and drinks by the manufacturer, cook or consumer, and sugars naturally present in honey, syrups, fruit juices and fruit juice concentrates.
    http://www.who.int/mediacentre/news/releases/2015/sugar-guideline/en/

    (I eat my fruit and strictly limit added sugars.)
  • jaqcan
    jaqcan Posts: 498 Member
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    I keep an eye on my sugars, but unless I'm adding sugar to coffee, or eating baked goods, I'm not being overly worried. As I track certain foods, I've noticed what I CAN cut back on. Yoplait yogurt has 25g (i think) of sugar in 1 small cup. We love yogurt, so I found light greek yogurt that has only 7g sugar, and 12g protein. As you continue tracking, keep an eye on what is high in sugar, and if you can, substitute it with something else.
  • RGv2
    RGv2 Posts: 5,789 Member
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    There really isn't a such thing as "good sugar" and "bad sugar", it's sugar. Sometimes the delivery path isn't the best for optimal health, dependent upon goals and frequency, but besides that sugar is sugar.

    Many on MFP don't track sugar because the MFP recommendation is pretty low.

    And let sugar dumpster fire thread #4,561 for the week commence.
  • Sarasmaintaining
    Sarasmaintaining Posts: 1,027 Member
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    RGv2 wrote: »
    There really isn't a such thing as "good sugar" and "bad sugar", it's sugar. Sometimes the delivery path isn't the best for optimal health, dependent upon goals and frequency, but besides that sugar is sugar.

    Many on MFP don't track sugar because the MFP recommendation is pretty low.

    And let sugar dumpster fire thread #4,561 for the week commence.

    This. I removed the sugar tracking option and track fiber instead.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited May 2015
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    LisaFL15 wrote: »
    a women's intake of sugars, according to the diary should be 25 g. Do I just go over every day and eat the required amt of fruit?

    Where are you getting this? I mean the "according to the diary" part.

    Some (like the WHO) recommend that added sugar be at 25 grams, but note that that's added (or non intrinsic) sugar, and would not include fruits, veggies, and dairy. MFP cannot distinguish, so tracks sugar as a whole--it's useless IMO, other than to see where your sugar is coming from and whether it bothers you (I would not be bothered by sugar from fruit and have never been surprised by my sugar sources, but some might be).

    MFP's level should be 15% of total calories, which at a minimum 1200 calories would be 45 grams. (I think even that is low as it includes fruits and veggies and dairy, so if you get lots of sugar from such sources and have a low calorie goal, I'd track carbs and fiber instead. Sugar is within carbs and fiber largely comes from whole and more nutrient dense carb sources, so if you are within your carbs and have sufficient fiber, you probably aren't eating lots of low nutrient/high sugar foods. Also, I personally think most people already know if they are eating lots of low nutrient foods that don't fit well in their diet, even without tracking.)
  • DarrenFL15
    DarrenFL15 Posts: 3 Member
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    I made a mistake when quoting the diary lists this, it's the heart associations recommendation of sugar per day 25 grams. OK this makes perfect sense, ty all for responding. We will now watch our intake of added sugar and since we've never heard of WHO, we're excited to read up more about this. My husband recently had a heart attack and this is now the way we will eat, we don't have room to mess around anymore. :) I'm happy to have found this place, without it I'm not sure I would be getting him/and I on the right path. :)
    When we joined the food diary gave us a choice to go with their recommendations or manually selecting our own numbers. We have had to input our own on the sodium and chlorestoral and bring those numbers down. I have lost 6lbs and he has lost 5 so far. The first in a very long time. This was our wakeup call.
  • demonelle
    demonelle Posts: 12 Member
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    This is a pretty wide topic for discussion tbh, I personally keep my sugars tracked but pay more attention to fibre. I wanted to really really cut down on my sugar intake and I checked frequently used condiments, removed juices and fizzy drinks/sodas from my diet (as I assume most would, as most wouldn't like the liquid calories involved) and have made that a pretty permanent change. As far as health goes aslong as the "sugary" item has fibre to it (like real fruit does) I wouldn't worry, I wouldn't worry about vegetables or lactose in dairy either, but I can see how it could be annoying to see yourself go over each day. I find though with these measures I don't actually go over my sugar intake that often at all unless I am eating quite a few servings of fruit.
  • DarrenFL15
    DarrenFL15 Posts: 3 Member
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    sorry I was responding and my husband was logged in, this is actually Lisa responding. :)