Sugars...I'm confused. Please help!

Can anyone who is more well versed in dietary and nutritional things help me out. I bought some honey to use as a sweetner in my oatmeal because everyone raves about how good it is for you. However, it has 16 sugars in a serving. How does that work out? Is it just added sugars that are bad, or are natural sugars ok? When your food diary calculates your intake, it doesn't differenciate between natural sugars and other sugars so how do I know what's what? I am having a terrible time with my lower belly and I've asked a couple of personal trainers as well as my Zumba instructor and they all tell me that belly fat...especially the lower belly is more diet than anything, mainly sugars. So do I need to boycott all sugars period? Even those in fruits and things. I've been eating lots of fresh fruits and veggies but now I'm wondering if I should back off?? Please help!

Honey is no different from table sugar, or any other natural sweetener (e.g., agave nectar). Sugars, in general, are not good for you if your goal is fat loss for a number of reasons. Yes; that includes sugars you get from fruit. If there was a fruit that didn't contain any fruit sugars I would encourage you to get right on it, lol, but the reason that fruits are considered acceptable is that they also provide vitamins and other nutrients.

Put this way:

BEST: nutrients + 0 sugar.
ACCEPTABLE (with moderation): nutrients + sugar. (e.g., fruits, some vegetables).
SHOULD BE AVOIDED: no nutrients + sugar (e.g., candies, unnecessary sweeteners added to things)

Do you need to boycott all sugars? I don't know if that can even be done practically, so as a practical for fat loss I'd suggest two alternatives:

1) Minimize the use of sweeteners when not needed, pick and choose fruits with less sugar when possible.
2) Use artificial sweeteners such as sweet n'low, but recognize that whether or not artificial sweeteners are badfor you long-term are still unknown.

what do you guys think about Truvia, because it's "supposed" to come from the stevia herb/plant.........? it still has sugar alcohol in it according to the box, claims and articles I find online say it's safer that aspartame. thoughts?

I'm working on getting my sugar down as well.

I personally don't like the idea of artificial sweeteners. All they are is chemically changed sugars and your body really doesn't know the difference. Whether you have a coke or a diet coke your body is still going to release insulin to balance it out making it harder to burn fat.

I personally like Stevia. It's plant based and natural. I haven't found anything about how your body reacts to it but it's better than chemicals in my opinion.

When I lived with my dad who was diabetic my sugar intake was actually quite reasonable so I've actually switched gears to a more diabetic friendly diet even though I'm not diabetic.

Work towards more vegetables and less fruits, all natural products, and no sugar added products.

Stevia has most of the same problems concerning insulin as sugar. Aspartame may not, but again as an artificial compound it may have its own long-term drawbacks.

Hiya,

I've had to cut out all sugar from my diet due to a Candida problem, so that means no sugar in any form, ie, cakes, but also in things you wouldn't think of like cheese (lactose is a form of sugar) and booze :-(

But this was an extreme measure due to health problems. From a weight lose point of view though I did learn that some fruits are far lower in sugar than others. Strawberries were one I remember were low sugar, so it might be worth you googling the sugar in fruit and then sticking to the lower sugar ones?

Good luck!

xxx

Ps I lost about a stone just from cutting out sugar, bread, white carbs and booze (I'm not recommending this to loose weight as it was pretty extreme - I did it for the health reasons mentioned above.) You could also google the green and lean diet for for info on cutting out sugar, white carbs etc.

I'm posting up some information on Honey vs. Sugar. While not a lot of sugar is better for you honey still has beneficial qualities to it. Did you know honey used to be used to treat wounds! Don't discount honey right away before reading some facts. The first pdf document if OHSU or Oregon Health Science University.

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:D8Y36BR6QAIJ:www.ohsu.edu/ohsuedu/academic/som/dietetic/upload/Lorren_honey-vs-sugar.pdf+honey+vs+sugar&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEEShlD4i034QPNsOPpiH1D992oYkHqgHQ_d431_UxpjhMKs9zhQUtFaj8ImiWOMj9etUzppokgtyhiNXsH5v5hp7K2A9_wi-FatAiEp1foZZSrTLutNluS_7jzizD0jVdLCi-gB5g&sig=AHIEtbRw8SDgZ5MMQK910Tm5T7rmvMKwlg&pli=1

http://www.benefits-of-honey.com/honey-vs-sugar.html

http://www.natural-health-restored.com/honey-vs-sugar.html

http://www.honey-health.com/honey-8.shtml