Is it truly necessary to track sugar intake if not diabetic?

pumpkinpocalypse · May 2015

I've grown quite insecure about how actually ''healthy'' my diet is from seeing more and more stuff about how sugar in various stuff is so unhealthy - mostly articles about yogurt. I understand that added sugar is unhealthy but...should we really stay away from it all the time ?
I eat a lot of fruits, anywhere from 2, 3 or sometimes even 4 a day (that's a bit more rare though), and enjoy fruit flavored yogurt on a regular basis. I try to stick with the healthiest brands most of the time, Liberte 2% being my favorite, but it's still raspberry, black cherry greek yogurt, vanilla..., flavored, which sadly means a lot of sugar and most of it being unnatural. I eat it in moderate quantities though, 100g or 1/2 cup if directly from the pot. (today i had both though...a packet at lunch and then some for dessert post-workout)
Aside from that, I have actual dessert (mini parts of cheesecake, cake or other chocolatey bites and stuff) maybe 2 times a week, even though it used to be a lot more often before.
I don't have diabetes, but I really look into eating clean and healthy, and also I wanna tone up (I don't need to lose much weight, mostly a muscle-toning, getting-leaner job to do), and that's why I'm worried if all this sugar could be too much for me/ruining my efforts ?
(I wanna try plain greek yogurt next time, but I've got to finish what I bought first)

futuremanda · May 2015

Personally, I'd avoid "health" articles in the media. They're generally exaggerated, misleading, fear mongering, etc if not outright wrong. I think they're worse for me than the sugar in my morning greek yoghurt tbh.

I don't worry about sugar in dairy or fruit at all. Personal preference, I guess. As for added sugar in my yoghurt... it's really not THAT bad imo. Like, what, 5-10g? Comparable to about 1 tbsp of jam?

For health, you're going to have to decide for yourself what you think of sugar, and your optimal intake levels of it, sources, timing, etc. I notice that I feel best if I always have protein and fat when I eat, if I don't drink my sugar (soda for example), and if I don't have much near bedtime. Otherwise, I do not really limit myself to a specific number.

For weight loss, it really doesn't matter. Calories. Find your appropriate calorie target and stick to it. As for what you eat and when, again, that's more personal and what you like, what makes you feel energetic and well and satisfied.

For toning up, it doesn't matter. Make sure you get enough protein. Make sure you're strength training appropriately (with progressive resistance). If you want to gain muscle mass, you'll want to eat at maintenance or in a caloric surplus, lift heavy, and get adequate protein.

pumpkinpocalypse · May 2015

futuremanda wrote: »

I don't worry about sugar in dairy or fruit at all. Personal preference, I guess. As for added sugar in my yoghurt... it's really not THAT bad imo. Like, what, 5-10g? Comparable to about 1 tbsp of jam?

Hmm, since it's flavored it's always around 20g of sugar for 3/4 cup, or 11g for 100g...that's why I was worried about it, since plain yogurt's sugar content is so much lower, around 6g per serving.

But what you said seems to makes a lot of sense, that's kinda reassuring! Thanks for the reply :}

yogi323 · May 2015

futuremanda wrote: »

Personally, I'd avoid "health" articles in the media. They're generally exaggerated, misleading, fear mongering, etc if not outright wrong. I think they're worse for me than the sugar in my morning greek yoghurt tbh.

I don't worry about sugar in dairy or fruit at all. Personal preference, I guess. As for added sugar in my yoghurt... it's really not THAT bad imo. Like, what, 5-10g? Comparable to about 1 tbsp of jam?

For health, you're going to have to decide for yourself what you think of sugar, and your optimal intake levels of it, sources, timing, etc. I notice that I feel best if I always have protein and fat when I eat, if I don't drink my sugar (soda for example), and if I don't have much near bedtime. Otherwise, I do not really limit myself to a specific number.

For weight loss, it really doesn't matter. Calories. Find your appropriate calorie target and stick to it. As for what you eat and when, again, that's more personal and what you like, what makes you feel energetic and well and satisfied.

For toning up, it doesn't matter. Make sure you get enough protein. Make sure you're strength training appropriately (with progressive resistance). If you want to gain muscle mass, you'll want to eat at maintenance or in a caloric surplus, lift heavy, and get adequate protein.

Literally everything this person said is 100% correct. I just want to say, "Ditto" to everything in the above post.

futuremanda · May 2015

pumpkinpocalypse wrote: »

futuremanda wrote: »

I don't worry about sugar in dairy or fruit at all. Personal preference, I guess. As for added sugar in my yoghurt... it's really not THAT bad imo. Like, what, 5-10g? Comparable to about 1 tbsp of jam?

Hmm, since it's flavored it's always around 20g of sugar for 3/4 cup, or 11g for 100g...that's why I was worried about it, since plain yogurt's sugar content is so much lower, around 6g per serving.

But what you said seems to makes a lot of sense, that's kinda reassuring! Thanks for the reply :}

Yeah but you're eating less than 3/4 cup, I thought. So 11 g instead of 6 g means an added sugar content of 5 g. Or around 0.6 tbsp of jam (using a generic jam entry). So picture your usual portion of yoghurt, but plain, and stirring maybe a spoonful of jam in to get the fruit flavour. That doesn't seem that excessive to me, and probably is what I'd do if someone handed me plain yoghurt.

[Edit: Making the portions the same, it'd be more like 3-4 g of sugar in 100g of plain, vs 11-12 g of sugar in 100g of flavoured. An increase of about 8 g. 1 tbsp of jam is 10 g.]

Sorry if I was confusing!

I think a lot of public articles about health are approached from an odd angle, making a lot of assumptions -- they're assuming that people aren't counting calories or looking at their nutrition, and that if you make something memorable enough, you could effect change. Drumming it in that sugar is bad could cause people to avoid sugar more often, which sounds like a public good, and it gets clicks... except fear is unhealthy, as are unfounded beliefs or things taken to extremes. This is why we have people afraid to eat at night (they heard it's bad) or who think they have to eat every 2-3 hours (they heard it's good) and so on. Those are not truths absent of context.

And neither is the idea that sugar is bad -- it's about the whole context of you, your body, your diet (everything you eat), when you eat, what you pair it with, and so on. Sugar-free yoghurt might be more important if you didn't value it much in your yoghurt, and you got a lot of excess sugar from other sources (maybe you had a daily dessert habit). But dessert twice a week and flavoured yoghurt 1-2 times per day doesn't sound excessive to me. (But I'm not you.)

If you have no medical reason to limit sugar, I'd say just find what works for you. If you pay attention, you'll notice when/if sugar is negatively affecting you, and you can adjust your habits with it. But trying to strip it all out may be too extreme if it's just going on some things you read.

thesupremeforce · May 2015

If you don't have a medical reason to track sugar, it's not necessary to track it. I suppose that if you find yourself eating so much sugar (carbs) that it prevents you from reaching your other macros or it puts you over in calories, you might want to track it.

I never bothered tracking sugar. Tracking carbs was more than adequate, and I only did that in relation to prioritizing it below protein/fat goals.

Justygirl77 · May 2015

If it isn't broken, don't fix it?
I worry if someone doesn't have several servings of veggies a day. And adequate protein. But I'm amazed at how some people seem perfectly fine on super low protein intake.
Or a diet devoid of veggies, just seems like a bad idea. That can't be healthy?

wanttobefit300 · May 2015

You can't get too much sugar from fruit. I just read about research that showed no matter what other factors were taken into account, the more fruit eaten the less likely the chance of developing type 2 diabetes. When I log, I completely ignore the sugar count if I know it came primarily from fruit. My dietitian agreed.

pumpkinpocalypse · May 2015

Thanks a bunch everyone , your replies were extremely useful. I'm a lot more less stressed about this whole "sugar is the enemy urr durr" craze right now.
Futuremanda, thanks for both of your posts and especially the last one, they're very well explained and resourceful! I guess I'm just gonna continue that way and adjust as i go, so far it doesnt seem like I feel different or bad from eating that sugar and stuff, it actually helps me getting to my calorie goal some days or adding some more protein to my diet.

Is it truly necessary to track sugar intake if not diabetic?

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