Sugers- good and the bad

They're talking about added sugar...

I don't really worry about sugar - i try to eat nutrient dense foods most of the time, and don't eat much with added sugar anyway! I get a lot, but it's mainly vegies, fruit and dairy (unsweetened)

livingleanlivingclean wrote: »

They're talking about added sugar...

I don't really worry about sugar - i try to eat nutrient dense foods most of the time, and don't eat much with added sugar anyway! I get a lot, but it's mainly vegies, fruit and dairy (unsweetened)

This^^^

sugar is sugar and it ALL gets converted to one thing in the body - glucose. Sticking to a nutritionally dense foods is far better for overall health but don't get hung up on 'good' and 'bad' sugar.

Work your diet consistently to your goal, make good food choices at least 80% of the time and pick foods you actually like.

The very low limits like 20 or 25 grams are referring to added sugar, and the reasoning isn't because there's some harm from the sugar itself (which doesn't become more harmful if it's refined from sugarcane or sugarbeets), but because typically if people are getting lots of added sugar in their diets it is coming from low nutrient "extras" or "treats" that don't add a lot of other nutrients beyond energy (calories) and thus that people should generally eat in more limited quantities than the average person eating the so-called "standard American diet." The WHO, for example, recommends that added sugar be at 10% of calories (ideally 5%, I think), but explains that's to avoid having excess calories or a diet lacking in nutrients. If you monitor your diet through something like MFP, I think it's reasonably easy to know if you are eating a mostly nutrient-dense, balanced diet and are within your calories without worrying too much about the numbers.

Also, the MFP limit (15% of calories) includes all sugar, and I've never seen a good reason why having higher amounts of sugar that come from fruits, veggies, and dairy (plus a moderate amount of sweets or added sugar) would be a bad thing if you are otherwise meeting your goals. (The MFP limit isn't particularly low if you have a reasonable number of calories, IMO, but I think it is pretty low if you are at, say, 1200.)

Anyway, if you want to track something that will indicate that you are largely getting your carbs (sugar is a carb) from more nutrient-dense sources and not a lot from added sugar, tracking fiber can be a good proxy for that (it's a minimum, not a maximum).

As an aside, other than if you happen to drink lots of soda or sweet drinks or, I guess, lots of candy, the calories in "added sugar" foods often come primarily or as significantly from fat. For example, I ran a cookie recipe I have, and one cookie has not that many calories from sugar itself (and fewer grams of sugar than an average apple), but plenty of calories, the biggest number from butter.

I get sugar in the food I eat along with all of the fiber and nutrients that make fruit healthy.

I don't use table sugar.

That plan and with exercise added, I was able to reverse type 2 diabetes

I know for me, when using a blood glucose tester, fruit hits my blood sugar different than a doughnut or ice cream.

YMMV

Just working off the calories you eat and being in a deficit takes care of many gremlins.

Unless you have health issues no reason to be alarmed.

Lots of people lose weight on low carb if that is your choice though. No monsters in a fat gram or a carb gram.

Just in too many calories!

Good luck!