How do you stick to your sugar limit?
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I don't track sugar, either. I have a good amount of fiber in my diet, and stick to a moderate carb intake. I'm good.0
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TheVirgoddess wrote: »
Maybe she's like those drug dealers who wouldn't touch the stuff.
Yeah, doesn't explain the banning bit.0 -
I don't eat or drink any sugar. (except veggies and fruit, of course). I believe it is a deadly drug (that is not an opinion, but a fact) and that it should be banned.
What? What you do in your own kitchen is fine, but keep your nose and your laws out of my kitchen. Thankfully, your desired ban is so absurd I have no actual concern that it's real possibility.
OP, I ignore the sugar number.0 -
Clue me in, when did sugar become a macro?0
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For me it's easy, I just increased my limit. Hello, 150gr of added sugar daily - I love you.0
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I stopped eating added sugars. All mine is found naturally in the food. It's tough to do, but doable. I remember a few years back about a limit of 100 calories of added sugar per day. When I don't eat added sugar, I don't crave it.0
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I rarely pay attention to my sugar macro. I rarely go over, and if I do, it's probably because I had an extra fruit that day. At the moment, I have no medical conditions that make it that I can't have sugar, and I don't go hog wild and eat table spoons of sugar, so I'm not that concerned.
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Some people have a health concern: family history, pre-disposition, actual disease, which makes them want to control the amount and types of carbohydrates, including sugar, that they eat.
Some people are following a low carb lifestyle, and of course they do track their carbohydrates, though I am not sure whether it would matter to them how many of those carbohydrates are sugars.
Government and International organization are concerned about people's total caloric intake and, in an attempt to control it without telling people to "resort" to calorie counting, they resort to (among other things) telling them to limit how much ADDED sugar they should eat.
The numbers you stated OP (25g, 50g), refer to ADDED SUGAR, loosely defined as sugars that are not included in dairy products and fruits. Even there it gets "complicated" with, for example, how you would count fruit that was added to a yoghurt product.
I can understand wanting to track ADDED SUGARS as a gauge of what one might define as "empty calories". In other words calories that could have been used to consume a more nutritionally dense product. But this is not what MFP does, so that sugar count is pretty much useless, unless you do have a concern about your TOTAL sugar intake.
If you are mainly concerned with meeting your nutritional requirements, losing weight by counting calories, and making healthy choices... you might be better off tracking your fiber data instead.
Look: if you are eating your protein, and your fat, and your fruits and veggies AND keeping under your caloric limit... you are unlikely to be hitting that added sugar very hard
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lemurcat12 wrote: »nvsmomketo wrote: »it is also a choice that won't hurt if you choose to do it without a medical need.
I don't think advising people to cut way back on vegetables and fruit--well below the recommended amounts--or foods that can have many positives for people who enjoy them, like dairy, sweet potatoes, plantains, corn, etc., is good advice or that you can blithely say that it won't hurt her. It's quite likely that the diet you are recommending would be less nutritionally sound than how the OP currently eats.
It is possible that a LCHF diet is less nutritionally sound than what she is doing now... or not. I am sure that my LCHF diet is MUCH more nutritious than when I included a "normal" amount of sugar because this led to overeating and the consumption of what I consider to be junk food... My own experience.
For me, eating LCHF has resulted in increased energy, better skin, execellent sleeping, reduced health issues, reduced joint pain, a maller appetitite, and weight loss.
For someone without sugar and carb issues, who has no health issues, and who can eat carbs in moderation, the LCHF diet may not be for you. Sort of like a healthy person who enjoys their steak - why would they switch to vegetarianism? They wouldn't... Plus it could negatively impact how nutritious their WOE is when proteins, fats, iron, B12, and vitamin A are cut from their diet.
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I am pretty consistent with keeping my sugar low. It's pretty easy when you don't use added sugars and only get the sugar that comes naturally in foods. I do sometimes add honey, but again it's natural sugar. The only time I go over is when I've had too many fruits that are high in natural sugars like peaches! I also eat very low carbs which helps the sugar count too.
If it's important to you then you can do it. I have chosen this due to recently being told my sugar levels are in the "too high" range and if I am not careful will lead to diabetes or other serious medical conditions.0 -
lemurcat12 wrote: »Rebeckistan wrote: »Turns out that MFP has me allocated for 45g of sugar, while the maximum amount of sugar a woman is supposed to consume each day is 24g.
This is a misunderstanding. MFP's sugar limit includes ALL sugar, and is 15% of calories. IMO, it's not hard to meet (should that be important to you) if you have a higher number of calories (I'm at 1700, and don't generally go over), but it can be challenging at 1200 (and 45 g) if you eat a decent amount of fruit, dairy, and even vegetables or some starches like sweet potatoes, corn, and plantains.
The 24 grams or the like -- for example the World Health Organization's 10% of overall calories, ideally 5%, as well as the link you cited--is NOT all sugar, but only added sugars plus honey/syrup and juice. That's because they aren't concerned about the health effects of sugar itself--that's been way overblown by some--but that people's overall diets are made up of too many low nutrient sweet treats (although many of the calories from these are actually from fat in many cases) and this is leading them to either be nutrient deficient or go over appropriate calories and gain weight. Obviously, then, it's not really an issue for someone watching their calories and diet closely and who largely gets sugar from more nutrient dense foods like fruit, vegetables, and dairy, etc.
I think even the 45 grams isn't the best approach, because just because 15% might make sense for someone not on restricted calories doesn't mean that it makes sense for someone on restricted calories, when you might choose to decrease starches (like bread or rice) and increase fruit, depending on preferences. I prefer a more common sense approach of paying attention to the overall diet, making sure that you are getting a good variety of nutrient rich foods and aren't low in things like fiber, protein, and fat. If that's so, then it's unlikely you are eating excessive sugar.
Interestingly, the NHS link you cited is similarly referring to added sugars for the 50 grams, so it's much more generous than MFP. My understanding is that the only proposed limits for ALL sugars (for example, the EU has one or has proposed one) exist solely so packaged products can give a percentage of RDI figure and they rely on the proposed limit for added sugars plus an estimate of what people consume from other sugars. This results in a much higher number, more like 90 g. In any case, there doesn't seem to be any evidence that exceeding any particular number of sugars is problematic or to support this currently popular idea among dieters that one should worry about fruit and dairy sugar or sugar itself outside of the question of whether one is eating an overall balanced diet. (There may be some evidence that drinking lots of sugary soda is a bad idea.)
Thank you for researching this and explaining it so well, it is very helpful.
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Rocky_1975 wrote: »nvsmomketo wrote: »I eat low carb and high fat so it is part of this WOE to have very low sugar, and I have found that once you get it low it is quite easy to maintain.
To keep my sugars below 10g, I eat mostly meats, cheese, nuts, and a few veggies that are low in sugars (like spinach - generally veggies that did not grow below the ground). I avoid all starchy foods and don't eat anything made with flour. I also eat at a slight caloric deficit to lose weight.
People will be quick to point out that keeping sugar this low is not needed unless you have a medical condition (which I do - prediabetes and autoimmune diseases), but it is also a choice that won't hurt if you choose to do it without a medical need. Sugar is the body's first choice for fuel but it will easily switch to fat burning when needed.
Best wishes.
Do you preface every post with this? Maybe you should have a T-shirt made so everyone will know.
Would you like one?
Did you read the OP? A request was made to see how other people eat who keep carbs to below 25g. The OP was "curious to seeing how other people manage and design their diets". I tried to be helpful and answer.
I thought mentioning LCHF is useful when I post because I do eat differently than many. I thought it would help my responses make more sense if people know where I am coming from.
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Wait, if a human makes something it's not natural, but if a bee does it, it is? That's your guiding nutritional principle? What if we could train bees to crystallize the juice of the sugar cane plant. Natural or not natural?SharonBrobst wrote: »I am pretty consistent with keeping my sugar low. It's pretty easy when you don't use added sugars and only get the sugar that comes naturally in foods. I do sometimes add honey, but again it's natural sugar.
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OP, ignore sugar. Just set your total carbs to whatever works the best for you and try to reach it with a variety of carb-type foods Fruit, veggies, whole grains, etc. will give you your carbs and many necessary micronutrients, including fiber, which is extremely important to reach your minimum.
Even many diabetics are told not to count sugars, just total carbs, unless they are taking insulin.0
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