Quick question about daily sugar goal / fruit

sissinnguaq
sissinnguaq Posts: 2 Member
edited December 2024 in Food and Nutrition
(Sorry if this is in the wrong place! I've never been on the forums before)

Basically: should I count sugars found in fruit as part of my daily target?

I discovered the nutrient targets today, and MFP has set my daily sugar target to 45g. But I had a banana at lunch, which apparently has almost 35g of sugar, so I'm nearly at my goal already! I know that some people separate "natural sugar" (which includes, I assume, things like fruit) from general - unnnatural? added? - "sugar". Should I do the same? Should I count the 35g of sugar from the banana as going towards my daily goal? Or, does the goal "exclude" things like fruit?

Normally I eat 2-3 portions of fruit a day, which comes to anywhere between 40-90(!)g of sugar, if that matters. (I just added a few combinations of the fruits I like to eat to get the numbers.)

I know that calories are the most important thing to remember in terms of weight, but I don't want to develop any bad habits. If the sugar in fruit is still "counted" then I guess it's still best not to go over the daily goal, and I'll just start replacing fruits with veggies and have a banana/etc as a bit of a treat!

Sorry if this is a silly question, I'm completely clueless when it comes to this stuff. Thanks if you can help!

Replies

  • markrgeary1
    markrgeary1 Posts: 853 Member
    edited October 2016
    I pay zero attention to sugar in fruit. Lost over 50 pounds while eating about a half pound of fruits daily. Many folks, with no medical reason to, don't find tracking sugar(added or naturally occurring) useful.
  • malibu927
    malibu927 Posts: 17,562 Member
    MFP doesn't differentiate natural sugar from added, and your body doesn't either. If you don't have a medical reason to watch your sugar intake, you don't need to worry about it. Personally, I chose to track fiber instead of sugar.
  • kshama2001
    kshama2001 Posts: 28,055 Member
    Ya, I swapped out the sugar nutrient for fiber as I find that a more useful thing to track http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings
  • sissinnguaq
    sissinnguaq Posts: 2 Member
    markrgeary1 wrote: »
    I pay zero attention to sugar in fruit. Lost over 50 pounds while eating about a half pound of fruits daily. Many folks, with no medical reason to, don't find tracking sugar(added or naturally occurring) useful.
    malibu927 wrote: »
    MFP doesn't differentiate natural sugar from added, and your body doesn't either. If you don't have a medical reason to watch your sugar intake, you don't need to worry about it. Personally, I chose to track fiber instead of sugar.

    Thank you both! I guess I'll keep eating my regular fruit if it won't matter much. :)
  • fitoverfortymom
    fitoverfortymom Posts: 3,452 Member
    kshama2001 wrote: »
    Ya, I swapped out the sugar nutrient for fiber as I find that a more useful thing to track http://www.myfitnesspal.com/account/diary_settings

    Wow. Brilliant. Thank you! I do like to see my sodium, because I feel decidedly yuckier when I've had too much (even then, my body tells me more than I need to see it in the numbers). I DO like to see when I've reached my fiber goal, though!
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    I agree with the others, but it's worth noting that the banana isn't likely to have anywhere near 35 g of sugar unless it is an unbelievably huge banana. There are lots of bad entries in the database and this one seems to be one that lots run into. Make sure you are using good entries -- the USDA is a good way to check and if you use the same words you should find the USDA entries saved in the MFP system (which are, generally, correct). They will have 100 g as a size option (which makes things easier).
  • nvmomketo
    nvmomketo Posts: 12,019 Member
    Sugar is sugar. If you want to limit your sugar (for health reasons or personal pereference) you may need to limit your fruits too, although I would eliminate refined foods with added sugars first.

    Most vegetable have a similar vitamin/nutrition content as fruit, so if you worry about missing out on a vitamin, consider more veggies.
  • GottaBurnEmAll
    GottaBurnEmAll Posts: 7,722 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    I agree with the others, but it's worth noting that the banana isn't likely to have anywhere near 35 g of sugar unless it is an unbelievably huge banana. There are lots of bad entries in the database and this one seems to be one that lots run into. Make sure you are using good entries -- the USDA is a good way to check and if you use the same words you should find the USDA entries saved in the MFP system (which are, generally, correct). They will have 100 g as a size option (which makes things easier).

    This. That would be a really large banana!

    The current WHO recommendations are to limit added sugars. I, like many others, track fiber instead of sugar.

    I love fruit and eat at least two servings every day. I find it really filling and I love the various textures and am especially fond of fruits with lots of juiciness to them. I'm missing summer already!

    There's a story I've told before on MFP about why I don't worry about sugar. I don't really eat a lot of added sugar, but I eat a lot of non-sweetened dairy and vegetables. There was one point where I was limiting my carbs to around 100 grams a day and wasn't eating fruit or added sugar. I still went over my MFP sugar allowance by eating an insane amount of cauliflower!
  • jennice23
    jennice23 Posts: 17 Member
    I love love love sugar. So I would know but just remember that a lot of food turn into sugar once inside the body and it will have damaging effects
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