Counting Added Sugar

13

Replies

  • Cbestinme
    Cbestinme Posts: 397 Member
    Thanks for explaning again.

    Actually yes the point I wanted to make was that the OP or anyone can choose to have an individual goal of 26g or whatever number in gram she chooses.

    Oops, I didn't follow the full debate as it was hard to read on phone. :)
  • Cbestinme
    Cbestinme Posts: 397 Member
    Hornsby wrote: »
    Sugar is 4 calories per gram so 80/4 = 20.

    Note: this is just the WHO's recommendation and is based on many added sugar products being calorie bombs because of the fat. I am not agreeing or disagreeing with their recommendations. Just giving you the numbers.

    Excellent thanks 4 grams per calorie, got it!
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    I WISH THIS APP DIFERENTIATED BETWEEN ADDED SUGAR AND NATURAL SUGAR!

    It can't, as that's not on food labels yet (in the US anyway). I expect it will in the future.
    I'm trying to count my carbs and sugars daily and I look at my sugar counts that are higher then I want them to be but a lot of the sugars are natural from fruits and such which are "okay sugars". So does anyone subtract their natural sugar count from their total daily sugars? Or do you up the daily intake of suggested surfaces (26g) to include natural sugars.

    I don't count sugar specifically, but I at first (and occasionally when I'm logging) look over my sugars to see how much added sugar I'm getting. Since I don't eat much packaged stuff it's pretty obvious -- sugars from whole foods, not added. Sugar from ice cream, added.

    I don't know where you got 26 g -- the lowest sugar goal you should get is 45 g, as MFP's goal is 15% of total calories. But I would say rather than count sugar the following strikes me as a better way to make sure you have a healthy balanced diet:

    (1) Enough protein?
    (2) Lots of vegetables?
    (3) Getting in healthy sources of fat?
    (4) Hitting the fiber goal?
    (5) Maybe glance through the day and make sure you aren't getting lots of sugar from unexpected sources or eating lots of low nutrient foods -- but if you've done 1-4 that's very unlikely.


    Where does 45 g come from?

    I think 26 g in OP question sounds close to 24 or 25 g that I've seen mentioned somewhere.

    In mfp tool, I noticed I could change my sugar grams grams to 24, 25, 26 etc ie whatever I choose that suits my body.

    Did I misread your comment? where does 45g "lowest sugar goal" come from?

    Hornsby answered this, but as I also said in my comment that you were responding to, MFP's goal is for ALL sugar, and is 15% of total calories. As the lowest calorie goal it gives is 1200, the lowest sugar goal it gives is 15% (you can change it manually).

    25 g is based on ADDED sugar only (which MFP doesn't have a goal from, since it can't separate the two) and is roughly based on 5% of total calories (the NHS or lower WHO goal) for someone who consumes 2000 calories. It's not supposed to be total sugar or set in stone regardless of calories, which people seem to often misunderstand.

    Is that clear?

    Thanks for this as well, especially explainin 5% of total calories, this is very helpful.

    So if I understand, the "recommendation" is that my sugar (from ADDED sugar sources) should be no more than 5% of total calories ?

    So if I understand, and I'm eating 1600 caliries, then I can eat up to 80 grams of ADDED sugar? Whoa! So 80 grams ADDED plus X grams from naturally sweet sources?

    Is my understanding correct?

    If so, for my body, my personal choice is to eat way fewer than 80 grams of sugar on a single given day.

    So to make mfp tool useful for my personal purpose, I manually change the daily grams of sugar (tab where you change your mfp goals) to a goal that suits me, per my personal choices.

    So the point I was making earlier, for OP or anyone who wants to, is it is feasible to change the daily grams of sugar to the number that suits that individual.

    Out of curiosity are folks eating 80 grams of sugar or more daily, just curious.

    I never pay attention to my sugar intake but I'm curious about this too-just added the sugar tracking option back onto to my account and here's my stats from today and Thursday-the two days I've tracked on MFP this week and have actual macros breakdowns:

    Thursday calorie intake: 1,671
    sugar intake: 70 grams
    -I had a serving of cookies and 2 servings of light hot cocoa mix on this day, but the thing that had the most sugar was actually 2 servings of tomato soup, which had 30g of sugar

    Today's calorie intake will be 1,665
    sugar intake: 90 grams
    -biggest amounts of sugar coming from a Healthy Choice Pineapple Chicken frozen entree (21g), 2 pkts of peach flavored instant oatmeal (26g), and then a banana which I'm adding to the oatmeal (15g). But, I guess I subtract the banana sugar grams since that's 'good' sugar? So then would my intake for today be 85g? What about the sugar in veggies? That's a few grams there as well for both days.

    Awesome thanks for sharing this very insightful

    Is the tomato soup homemade, or from can, if latter perhaps they added sugar?

    I have a homemade tomato and meat based pasta sauce with LOTS of vegetables, and it has 7 g of sugar per serving, which is not that different from some jarred stuff (which I never eat) that are allegedly full of added sugar. But I know this is just from tomatoes and other vegetables. I similarly have a gazpacho that's 12 g, with only tomatoes and other veg as a source (well, and a little vinegar).
  • Cbestinme
    Cbestinme Posts: 397 Member
    edited December 2016
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    I WISH THIS APP DIFERENTIATED BETWEEN ADDED SUGAR AND NATURAL SUGAR!

    It can't, as that's not on food labels yet (in the US anyway). I expect it will in the future.
    I'm trying to count my carbs and sugars daily and I look at my sugar counts that are higher then I want them to be but a lot of the sugars are natural from fruits and such which are "okay sugars". So does anyone subtract their natural sugar count from their total daily sugars? Or do you up the daily intake of suggested surfaces (26g) to include natural sugars.

    I don't count sugar specifically, but I at first (and occasionally when I'm logging) look over my sugars to see how much added sugar I'm getting. Since I don't eat much packaged stuff it's pretty obvious -- sugars from whole foods, not added. Sugar from ice cream, added.

    I don't know where you got 26 g -- the lowest sugar goal you should get is 45 g, as MFP's goal is 15% of total calories. But I would say rather than count sugar the following strikes me as a better way to make sure you have a healthy balanced diet:

    (1) Enough protein?
    (2) Lots of vegetables?
    (3) Getting in healthy sources of fat?
    (4) Hitting the fiber goal?
    (5) Maybe glance through the day and make sure you aren't getting lots of sugar from unexpected sources or eating lots of low nutrient foods -- but if you've done 1-4 that's very unlikely.


    Where does 45 g come from?

    I think 26 g in OP question sounds close to 24 or 25 g that I've seen mentioned somewhere.

    In mfp tool, I noticed I could change my sugar grams grams to 24, 25, 26 etc ie whatever I choose that suits my body.

    Did I misread your comment? where does 45g "lowest sugar goal" come from?

    Hornsby answered this, but as I also said in my comment that you were responding to, MFP's goal is for ALL sugar, and is 15% of total calories. As the lowest calorie goal it gives is 1200, the lowest sugar goal it gives is 15% (you can change it manually).

    25 g is based on ADDED sugar only (which MFP doesn't have a goal from, since it can't separate the two) and is roughly based on 5% of total calories (the NHS or lower WHO goal) for someone who consumes 2000 calories. It's not supposed to be total sugar or set in stone regardless of calories, which people seem to often misunderstand.

    Is that clear?

    Thanks for this as well, especially explainin 5% of total calories, this is very helpful.

    So if I understand, the "recommendation" is that my sugar (from ADDED sugar sources) should be no more than 5% of total calories ?

    So if I understand, and I'm eating 1600 caliries, then I can eat up to 80 grams of ADDED sugar? Whoa! So 80 grams ADDED plus X grams from naturally sweet sources?

    Is my understanding correct?

    If so, for my body, my personal choice is to eat way fewer than 80 grams of sugar on a single given day.

    So to make mfp tool useful for my personal purpose, I manually change the daily grams of sugar (tab where you change your mfp goals) to a goal that suits me, per my personal choices.

    So the point I was making earlier, for OP or anyone who wants to, is it is feasible to change the daily grams of sugar to the number that suits that individual.

    Out of curiosity are folks eating 80 grams of sugar or more daily, just curious.

    I often go over 80 grams. I consume a lot of dairy and sometimes multiple servings of fruit so it adds up. My diet is also heavy in vegetables, grains and legumes. For example: if I have a cup of green peas, that's 10 grams of sugar right there. An average sweet onion has 7 grams of sugar and a very small bunch of baby carrots has 5. I love chickpeas and they have more than 10 grams of sugar in 100 grams of dried chickpeas... and so on. A heavily plant-based diet is bound to be high in sugar even if you don't add plain sugar or sweets, especially if there is also dairy (a cup of plain milk or yogurt has 10-15 grams of sugar).

    Thanks for sharing, yes it's helpful to kniw, I think this is very much in line with one of the earliest responses which suggested not to worry if it's mostly from natural sources. Great tip.

    While I now see how natural sources can add up to 80 g OP or myself or others may choose to have lower goals. I hope OP now knows how she can do what works for her.
    Edited typos!
  • Cbestinme
    Cbestinme Posts: 397 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    I WISH THIS APP DIFERENTIATED BETWEEN ADDED SUGAR AND NATURAL SUGAR!

    It can't, as that's not on food labels yet (in the US anyway). I expect it will in the future.
    I'm trying to count my carbs and sugars daily and I look at my sugar counts that are higher then I want them to be but a lot of the sugars are natural from fruits and such which are "okay sugars". So does anyone subtract their natural sugar count from their total daily sugars? Or do you up the daily intake of suggested surfaces (26g) to include natural sugars.

    I don't count sugar specifically, but I at first (and occasionally when I'm logging) look over my sugars to see how much added sugar I'm getting. Since I don't eat much packaged stuff it's pretty obvious -- sugars from whole foods, not added. Sugar from ice cream, added.

    I don't know where you got 26 g -- the lowest sugar goal you should get is 45 g, as MFP's goal is 15% of total calories. But I would say rather than count sugar the following strikes me as a better way to make sure you have a healthy balanced diet:

    (1) Enough protein?
    (2) Lots of vegetables?
    (3) Getting in healthy sources of fat?
    (4) Hitting the fiber goal?
    (5) Maybe glance through the day and make sure you aren't getting lots of sugar from unexpected sources or eating lots of low nutrient foods -- but if you've done 1-4 that's very unlikely.


    Where does 45 g come from?

    I think 26 g in OP question sounds close to 24 or 25 g that I've seen mentioned somewhere.

    In mfp tool, I noticed I could change my sugar grams grams to 24, 25, 26 etc ie whatever I choose that suits my body.

    Did I misread your comment? where does 45g "lowest sugar goal" come from?

    Hornsby answered this, but as I also said in my comment that you were responding to, MFP's goal is for ALL sugar, and is 15% of total calories. As the lowest calorie goal it gives is 1200, the lowest sugar goal it gives is 15% (you can change it manually).

    25 g is based on ADDED sugar only (which MFP doesn't have a goal from, since it can't separate the two) and is roughly based on 5% of total calories (the NHS or lower WHO goal) for someone who consumes 2000 calories. It's not supposed to be total sugar or set in stone regardless of calories, which people seem to often misunderstand.

    Is that clear?

    Thanks for this as well, especially explainin 5% of total calories, this is very helpful.

    So if I understand, the "recommendation" is that my sugar (from ADDED sugar sources) should be no more than 5% of total calories ?

    So if I understand, and I'm eating 1600 caliries, then I can eat up to 80 grams of ADDED sugar? Whoa! So 80 grams ADDED plus X grams from naturally sweet sources?

    Is my understanding correct?

    If so, for my body, my personal choice is to eat way fewer than 80 grams of sugar on a single given day.

    So to make mfp tool useful for my personal purpose, I manually change the daily grams of sugar (tab where you change your mfp goals) to a goal that suits me, per my personal choices.

    So the point I was making earlier, for OP or anyone who wants to, is it is feasible to change the daily grams of sugar to the number that suits that individual.

    Out of curiosity are folks eating 80 grams of sugar or more daily, just curious.

    I never pay attention to my sugar intake but I'm curious about this too-just added the sugar tracking option back onto to my account and here's my stats from today and Thursday-the two days I've tracked on MFP this week and have actual macros breakdowns:

    Thursday calorie intake: 1,671
    sugar intake: 70 grams
    -I had a serving of cookies and 2 servings of light hot cocoa mix on this day, but the thing that had the most sugar was actually 2 servings of tomato soup, which had 30g of sugar

    Today's calorie intake will be 1,665
    sugar intake: 90 grams
    -biggest amounts of sugar coming from a Healthy Choice Pineapple Chicken frozen entree (21g), 2 pkts of peach flavored instant oatmeal (26g), and then a banana which I'm adding to the oatmeal (15g). But, I guess I subtract the banana sugar grams since that's 'good' sugar? So then would my intake for today be 85g? What about the sugar in veggies? That's a few grams there as well for both days.

    Awesome thanks for sharing this very insightful

    Is the tomato soup homemade, or from can, if latter perhaps they added sugar?

    I have a homemade tomato and meat based pasta sauce with LOTS of vegetables, and it has 7 g of sugar per serving, which is not that different from some jarred stuff (which I never eat) that are allegedly full of added sugar. But I know this is just from tomatoes and other vegetables. I similarly have a gazpacho that's 12 g, with only tomatoes and other veg as a source (well, and a little vinegar).

    Nice! Maybe it's possible not all jars are created equal sugar wise. I have a jar which says 6g of sugar per serving. When I eat a tomato, mfp tells me it's 2 gram per serving. Maybe I should start making my own sauce :)
  • amusedmonkey
    amusedmonkey Posts: 10,330 Member
    edited December 2016
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    I WISH THIS APP DIFERENTIATED BETWEEN ADDED SUGAR AND NATURAL SUGAR!

    It can't, as that's not on food labels yet (in the US anyway). I expect it will in the future.
    I'm trying to count my carbs and sugars daily and I look at my sugar counts that are higher then I want them to be but a lot of the sugars are natural from fruits and such which are "okay sugars". So does anyone subtract their natural sugar count from their total daily sugars? Or do you up the daily intake of suggested surfaces (26g) to include natural sugars.

    I don't count sugar specifically, but I at first (and occasionally when I'm logging) look over my sugars to see how much added sugar I'm getting. Since I don't eat much packaged stuff it's pretty obvious -- sugars from whole foods, not added. Sugar from ice cream, added.

    I don't know where you got 26 g -- the lowest sugar goal you should get is 45 g, as MFP's goal is 15% of total calories. But I would say rather than count sugar the following strikes me as a better way to make sure you have a healthy balanced diet:

    (1) Enough protein?
    (2) Lots of vegetables?
    (3) Getting in healthy sources of fat?
    (4) Hitting the fiber goal?
    (5) Maybe glance through the day and make sure you aren't getting lots of sugar from unexpected sources or eating lots of low nutrient foods -- but if you've done 1-4 that's very unlikely.


    Where does 45 g come from?

    I think 26 g in OP question sounds close to 24 or 25 g that I've seen mentioned somewhere.

    In mfp tool, I noticed I could change my sugar grams grams to 24, 25, 26 etc ie whatever I choose that suits my body.

    Did I misread your comment? where does 45g "lowest sugar goal" come from?

    Hornsby answered this, but as I also said in my comment that you were responding to, MFP's goal is for ALL sugar, and is 15% of total calories. As the lowest calorie goal it gives is 1200, the lowest sugar goal it gives is 15% (you can change it manually).

    25 g is based on ADDED sugar only (which MFP doesn't have a goal from, since it can't separate the two) and is roughly based on 5% of total calories (the NHS or lower WHO goal) for someone who consumes 2000 calories. It's not supposed to be total sugar or set in stone regardless of calories, which people seem to often misunderstand.

    Is that clear?

    Thanks for this as well, especially explainin 5% of total calories, this is very helpful.

    So if I understand, the "recommendation" is that my sugar (from ADDED sugar sources) should be no more than 5% of total calories ?

    So if I understand, and I'm eating 1600 caliries, then I can eat up to 80 grams of ADDED sugar? Whoa! So 80 grams ADDED plus X grams from naturally sweet sources?

    Is my understanding correct?

    If so, for my body, my personal choice is to eat way fewer than 80 grams of sugar on a single given day.

    So to make mfp tool useful for my personal purpose, I manually change the daily grams of sugar (tab where you change your mfp goals) to a goal that suits me, per my personal choices.

    So the point I was making earlier, for OP or anyone who wants to, is it is feasible to change the daily grams of sugar to the number that suits that individual.

    Out of curiosity are folks eating 80 grams of sugar or more daily, just curious.

    I never pay attention to my sugar intake but I'm curious about this too-just added the sugar tracking option back onto to my account and here's my stats from today and Thursday-the two days I've tracked on MFP this week and have actual macros breakdowns:

    Thursday calorie intake: 1,671
    sugar intake: 70 grams
    -I had a serving of cookies and 2 servings of light hot cocoa mix on this day, but the thing that had the most sugar was actually 2 servings of tomato soup, which had 30g of sugar

    Today's calorie intake will be 1,665
    sugar intake: 90 grams
    -biggest amounts of sugar coming from a Healthy Choice Pineapple Chicken frozen entree (21g), 2 pkts of peach flavored instant oatmeal (26g), and then a banana which I'm adding to the oatmeal (15g). But, I guess I subtract the banana sugar grams since that's 'good' sugar? So then would my intake for today be 85g? What about the sugar in veggies? That's a few grams there as well for both days.

    Awesome thanks for sharing this very insightful

    Is the tomato soup homemade, or from can, if latter perhaps they added sugar?

    I have a homemade tomato and meat based pasta sauce with LOTS of vegetables, and it has 7 g of sugar per serving, which is not that different from some jarred stuff (which I never eat) that are allegedly full of added sugar. But I know this is just from tomatoes and other vegetables. I similarly have a gazpacho that's 12 g, with only tomatoes and other veg as a source (well, and a little vinegar).

    Nice! Maybe it's possible not all jars are created equal sugar wise. I have a jar which says 6g of sugar per serving. When I eat a tomato, mfp tells me it's 2 gram per serving. Maybe I should start making my own sauce :)

    Note that tomato sauce is reduced by boiling, so even if you add zero sugar you will end up with a higher sugar concentration. That serving of sauce may have 3 or more tomatoes in it but with less water content. A commercial brand may use meatier tomatoes too, which have more sugar and less water than regular ones.

    Personally I don't think tracking sugar (even added sugar) is useful in any way if you are tracking calories.
  • Cbestinme
    Cbestinme Posts: 397 Member
    edited December 2016
    Excellent points thanks. The reason to make my own wouldn't be entirely for sugar, but to have better knowledge what's inside the sauce. Not sure how the tomatoes in jars stay fresh.:)
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    Excellent points thanks. The reason to make my own wouldn't be entirely for sugar, but to have better knowledge what's inside the sauce. Not sure how the tomatoes in jars stay fresh.:)

    Canning has long been a means of preserving foods and often canned tomatoes taste far better in winter months than any "fresh" tomatoes since they are likely not in season (at least not where I live).
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    When I make fresh sauce, I like it a little sweet. If the sweet basil or the tomato need help, I add a little sugar.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited December 2016
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    I WISH THIS APP DIFERENTIATED BETWEEN ADDED SUGAR AND NATURAL SUGAR!

    It can't, as that's not on food labels yet (in the US anyway). I expect it will in the future.
    I'm trying to count my carbs and sugars daily and I look at my sugar counts that are higher then I want them to be but a lot of the sugars are natural from fruits and such which are "okay sugars". So does anyone subtract their natural sugar count from their total daily sugars? Or do you up the daily intake of suggested surfaces (26g) to include natural sugars.

    I don't count sugar specifically, but I at first (and occasionally when I'm logging) look over my sugars to see how much added sugar I'm getting. Since I don't eat much packaged stuff it's pretty obvious -- sugars from whole foods, not added. Sugar from ice cream, added.

    I don't know where you got 26 g -- the lowest sugar goal you should get is 45 g, as MFP's goal is 15% of total calories. But I would say rather than count sugar the following strikes me as a better way to make sure you have a healthy balanced diet:

    (1) Enough protein?
    (2) Lots of vegetables?
    (3) Getting in healthy sources of fat?
    (4) Hitting the fiber goal?
    (5) Maybe glance through the day and make sure you aren't getting lots of sugar from unexpected sources or eating lots of low nutrient foods -- but if you've done 1-4 that's very unlikely.


    Where does 45 g come from?

    I think 26 g in OP question sounds close to 24 or 25 g that I've seen mentioned somewhere.

    In mfp tool, I noticed I could change my sugar grams grams to 24, 25, 26 etc ie whatever I choose that suits my body.

    Did I misread your comment? where does 45g "lowest sugar goal" come from?

    Hornsby answered this, but as I also said in my comment that you were responding to, MFP's goal is for ALL sugar, and is 15% of total calories. As the lowest calorie goal it gives is 1200, the lowest sugar goal it gives is 15% (you can change it manually).

    25 g is based on ADDED sugar only (which MFP doesn't have a goal from, since it can't separate the two) and is roughly based on 5% of total calories (the NHS or lower WHO goal) for someone who consumes 2000 calories. It's not supposed to be total sugar or set in stone regardless of calories, which people seem to often misunderstand.

    Is that clear?

    Thanks for this as well, especially explainin 5% of total calories, this is very helpful.

    So if I understand, the "recommendation" is that my sugar (from ADDED sugar sources) should be no more than 5% of total calories ?

    So if I understand, and I'm eating 1600 caliries, then I can eat up to 80 grams of ADDED sugar? Whoa! So 80 grams ADDED plus X grams from naturally sweet sources?

    Is my understanding correct?

    If so, for my body, my personal choice is to eat way fewer than 80 grams of sugar on a single given day.

    So to make mfp tool useful for my personal purpose, I manually change the daily grams of sugar (tab where you change your mfp goals) to a goal that suits me, per my personal choices.

    So the point I was making earlier, for OP or anyone who wants to, is it is feasible to change the daily grams of sugar to the number that suits that individual.

    Out of curiosity are folks eating 80 grams of sugar or more daily, just curious.

    I never pay attention to my sugar intake but I'm curious about this too-just added the sugar tracking option back onto to my account and here's my stats from today and Thursday-the two days I've tracked on MFP this week and have actual macros breakdowns:

    Thursday calorie intake: 1,671
    sugar intake: 70 grams
    -I had a serving of cookies and 2 servings of light hot cocoa mix on this day, but the thing that had the most sugar was actually 2 servings of tomato soup, which had 30g of sugar

    Today's calorie intake will be 1,665
    sugar intake: 90 grams
    -biggest amounts of sugar coming from a Healthy Choice Pineapple Chicken frozen entree (21g), 2 pkts of peach flavored instant oatmeal (26g), and then a banana which I'm adding to the oatmeal (15g). But, I guess I subtract the banana sugar grams since that's 'good' sugar? So then would my intake for today be 85g? What about the sugar in veggies? That's a few grams there as well for both days.

    Awesome thanks for sharing this very insightful

    Is the tomato soup homemade, or from can, if latter perhaps they added sugar?

    I have a homemade tomato and meat based pasta sauce with LOTS of vegetables, and it has 7 g of sugar per serving, which is not that different from some jarred stuff (which I never eat) that are allegedly full of added sugar. But I know this is just from tomatoes and other vegetables. I similarly have a gazpacho that's 12 g, with only tomatoes and other veg as a source (well, and a little vinegar).

    Nice! Maybe it's possible not all jars are created equal sugar wise. I have a jar which says 6g of sugar per serving. When I eat a tomato, mfp tells me it's 2 gram per serving. Maybe I should start making my own sauce :)

    I always make my own sauce, more because I think it tastes better and I enjoy it than because I think you can't fine [edit: find, heh] perfectly healthy sauces with ingredients that I would use at home.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    Excellent points thanks. The reason to make my own wouldn't be entirely for sugar, but to have better knowledge what's inside the sauce. Not sure how the tomatoes in jars stay fresh.:)

    Canning has long been a means of preserving foods and often canned tomatoes taste far better in winter months than any "fresh" tomatoes since they are likely not in season (at least not where I live).

    Yes, this is true. In making a sauce at home I always used canned tomatoes (you can get really good tomatoes) in the winter vs. the tasteless "fresh" tomatoes available then.
  • Cbestinme
    Cbestinme Posts: 397 Member
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    Excellent points thanks. The reason to make my own wouldn't be entirely for sugar, but to have better knowledge what's inside the sauce. Not sure how the tomatoes in jars stay fresh.:)

    Canning has long been a means of preserving foods and often canned tomatoes taste far better in winter months than any "fresh" tomatoes since they are likely not in season (at least not where I live).

    Was talking about glass jars of tomato sauce. Not sure how they get to stay good for long periods. :) agreed that "fresh" is a loose term if the farm isn't right there
  • Cbestinme
    Cbestinme Posts: 397 Member
    queenliz99 wrote: »
    When I make fresh sauce, I like it a little sweet. If the sweet basil or the tomato need help, I add a little sugar.

    Good to know, thanks! Do you start with fresh tomatoes?
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    edited December 2016
    queenliz99 wrote: »
    When I make fresh sauce, I like it a little sweet. If the sweet basil or the tomato need help, I add a little sugar.

    I don't (mainly because I rarely make a plain tomato sauce but add a bunch of vegetables), but it's really traditional to do so. I learned to cook in part from Marcella Hazen's Fundamentals of Classic Italian Cooking, and she recommends a bit of sugar in a marinara to cut against the acidity.
  • queenliz99
    queenliz99 Posts: 15,317 Member
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    queenliz99 wrote: »
    When I make fresh sauce, I like it a little sweet. If the sweet basil or the tomato need help, I add a little sugar.

    Good to know, thanks! Do you start with fresh tomatoes?

    Yes, from my backyard garden.
  • Cbestinme
    Cbestinme Posts: 397 Member
    queenliz99 wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    queenliz99 wrote: »
    When I make fresh sauce, I like it a little sweet. If the sweet basil or the tomato need help, I add a little sugar.

    Good to know, thanks! Do you start with fresh tomatoes?

    Yes, from my backyard garden.

    Lucky!!!!
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    While I now see how natural sources can add up to 80 g OP or myself or others may choose to have lower goals. I hope OP now knows how she can do what works for her.

    If you thought anyone was telling OP she couldn't choose her own goals, I think you misread the thread. Absolutely no one was.

    What I would tell OP is that there's no need (based on recommended nutritional guidelines) to limit total sugar to below 26 g, and that if MFP is listing that number it's wrong (or she added it herself, but of course she would know that). MFP's default will never be 26 g.

    If you WANT to limit total sugar to that amount, of course you can. For me that would be limiting the vegetables I eat, as well as cutting out fruit, dairy, sweet potatoes, etc., so I think it would lead to a less healthful diet, but I suppose it might work for someone on a keto plan or some such.
  • Cbestinme
    Cbestinme Posts: 397 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    While I now see how natural sources can add up to 80 g OP or myself or others may choose to have lower goals. I hope OP now knows how she can do what works for her.

    If you thought anyone was telling OP she couldn't choose her own goals, I think you misread the thread. Absolutely no one was.

    What I would tell OP is that there's no need (based on recommended nutritional guidelines) to limit total sugar to below 26 g, and that if MFP is listing that number it's wrong (or she added it herself, but of course she would know that). MFP's default will never be 26 g.

    If you WANT to limit total sugar to that amount, of course you can. For me that would be limiting the vegetables I eat, as well as cutting out fruit, dairy, sweet potatoes, etc., so I think it would lead to a less healthful diet, but I suppose it might work for someone on a keto plan or some such.

    Ok thanks it's totally possible I misread the parts I quickly read (as I skipped parts of the thread), oops!

    Anyway, glad we're on same page that individuals could choose what works for them, whether there's an underlying health need or not, or just a personal preference.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    OP's question was whether she could eat MORE than 26 g of sugar if a lot of it was intrinsic sugar. There was nothing to suggest that she had decided on her own that she only wanted to consume 26 g of total sugar. I honestly don't get where you got that.

    (But yeah, I agree, that if she wanted to she obviously could. Can't imagine anyone would disagree.)
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    Excellent points thanks. The reason to make my own wouldn't be entirely for sugar, but to have better knowledge what's inside the sauce. Not sure how the tomatoes in jars stay fresh.:)

    Canning has long been a means of preserving foods and often canned tomatoes taste far better in winter months than any "fresh" tomatoes since they are likely not in season (at least not where I live).

    Was talking about glass jars of tomato sauce. Not sure how they get to stay good for long periods. :) agreed that "fresh" is a loose term if the farm isn't right there

    Why would a vacuum sealed glass jar not stay good for long periods? I've never canned at home but Bell jars are kind of the standard and those are glass?
  • Wynterbourne
    Wynterbourne Posts: 2,224 Member
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    Excellent points thanks. The reason to make my own wouldn't be entirely for sugar, but to have better knowledge what's inside the sauce. Not sure how the tomatoes in jars stay fresh.:)

    Canning has long been a means of preserving foods and often canned tomatoes taste far better in winter months than any "fresh" tomatoes since they are likely not in season (at least not where I live).

    Was talking about glass jars of tomato sauce. Not sure how they get to stay good for long periods. :) agreed that "fresh" is a loose term if the farm isn't right there

    Why would a vacuum sealed glass jar not stay good for long periods? I've never canned at home but Bell jars are kind of the standard and those are glass?

    Ball... yep. :smile: Mason canning jars are glass.
  • Cbestinme
    Cbestinme Posts: 397 Member
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    OP's question was whether she could eat MORE than 26 g of sugar if a lot of it was intrinsic sugar. There was nothing to suggest that she had decided on her own that she only wanted to consume 26 g of total sugar. I honestly don't get where you got that.

    (But yeah, I agree, that if she wanted to she obviously could. Can't imagine anyone would disagree.)

    I read this

    Quote
    and I look at my sugar counts that are higher then I want them
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    Excellent points thanks. The reason to make my own wouldn't be entirely for sugar, but to have better knowledge what's inside the sauce. Not sure how the tomatoes in jars stay fresh.:)

    Canning has long been a means of preserving foods and often canned tomatoes taste far better in winter months than any "fresh" tomatoes since they are likely not in season (at least not where I live).

    Was talking about glass jars of tomato sauce. Not sure how they get to stay good for long periods. :) agreed that "fresh" is a loose term if the farm isn't right there

    Why would a vacuum sealed glass jar not stay good for long periods? I've never canned at home but Bell jars are kind of the standard and those are glass?

    I have homemade pickles from just over 2 years ago. They are still good. Actually, they are awesome. Sweet with a spicy kick at the end. Just awesome.
  • Cbestinme
    Cbestinme Posts: 397 Member
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    Excellent points thanks. The reason to make my own wouldn't be entirely for sugar, but to have better knowledge what's inside the sauce. Not sure how the tomatoes in jars stay fresh.:)

    Canning has long been a means of preserving foods and often canned tomatoes taste far better in winter months than any "fresh" tomatoes since they are likely not in season (at least not where I live).

    Was talking about glass jars of tomato sauce. Not sure how they get to stay good for long periods. :) agreed that "fresh" is a loose term if the farm isn't right there

    Why would a vacuum sealed glass jar not stay good for long periods? I've never canned at home but Bell jars are kind of the standard and those are glass?

    Ball... yep. :smile: Mason canning jars are glass.

    Ok can also means glass jar, got it. :)
    Not sure whether homemade sauce lasts as long as store bought, which seem to stay good for months?
  • Cbestinme
    Cbestinme Posts: 397 Member
    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    Excellent points thanks. The reason to make my own wouldn't be entirely for sugar, but to have better knowledge what's inside the sauce. Not sure how the tomatoes in jars stay fresh.:)

    Canning has long been a means of preserving foods and often canned tomatoes taste far better in winter months than any "fresh" tomatoes since they are likely not in season (at least not where I live).

    Was talking about glass jars of tomato sauce. Not sure how they get to stay good for long periods. :) agreed that "fresh" is a loose term if the farm isn't right there

    Why would a vacuum sealed glass jar not stay good for long periods? I've never canned at home but Bell jars are kind of the standard and those are glass?

    I have homemade pickles from just over 2 years ago. They are still good. Actually, they are awesome. Sweet with a spicy kick at the end. Just awesome.

    Cool, did you put in anything to get them to last 2 years?
  • WinoGelato
    WinoGelato Posts: 13,454 Member
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    Excellent points thanks. The reason to make my own wouldn't be entirely for sugar, but to have better knowledge what's inside the sauce. Not sure how the tomatoes in jars stay fresh.:)

    Canning has long been a means of preserving foods and often canned tomatoes taste far better in winter months than any "fresh" tomatoes since they are likely not in season (at least not where I live).

    Was talking about glass jars of tomato sauce. Not sure how they get to stay good for long periods. :) agreed that "fresh" is a loose term if the farm isn't right there

    Why would a vacuum sealed glass jar not stay good for long periods? I've never canned at home but Bell jars are kind of the standard and those are glass?

    Ball... yep. :smile: Mason canning jars are glass.

    LOL maybe I was channeling Sylvia Plath.
  • nutmegoreo
    nutmegoreo Posts: 15,532 Member
    edited December 2016
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    Excellent points thanks. The reason to make my own wouldn't be entirely for sugar, but to have better knowledge what's inside the sauce. Not sure how the tomatoes in jars stay fresh.:)

    Canning has long been a means of preserving foods and often canned tomatoes taste far better in winter months than any "fresh" tomatoes since they are likely not in season (at least not where I live).

    Was talking about glass jars of tomato sauce. Not sure how they get to stay good for long periods. :) agreed that "fresh" is a loose term if the farm isn't right there

    Why would a vacuum sealed glass jar not stay good for long periods? I've never canned at home but Bell jars are kind of the standard and those are glass?

    I have homemade pickles from just over 2 years ago. They are still good. Actually, they are awesome. Sweet with a spicy kick at the end. Just awesome.

    Cool, did you put in anything to get them to last 2 years?

    No. The jars are sterilized before adding whatever food you want to them. While the food is still hot, you put the lids on, and as it cools, the air molecules get closer together causing a vacuum seal. So nothing that will grow gets in. It's a bit of a process, but I have canned fruits, carrots, pickles (I should make some pickled eggs), beet pickles, pasta and pizza sauce, salsa, and jams. It's a bit of a process, so it's nice to have everything together and make a day of it.

    ETA: Here's a link:

    http://www.canning-food-recipes.com/canning.htm

    and another:

    http://www.seriouseats.com/2012/02/how-to-can-canning-pickling-preserving-ball-jars-materials-siphoning-recipes.html

    Full disclosure: I haven't actually read these sites, I grabbed them for further reading.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    lemurcat12 wrote: »
    OP's question was whether she could eat MORE than 26 g of sugar if a lot of it was intrinsic sugar. There was nothing to suggest that she had decided on her own that she only wanted to consume 26 g of total sugar. I honestly don't get where you got that.

    (But yeah, I agree, that if she wanted to she obviously could. Can't imagine anyone would disagree.)

    I read this

    Quote
    and I look at my sugar counts that are higher then I want them

    Followed by:

    "...but a lot of the sugars are natural from fruits and such which are "okay sugars". So does anyone subtract their natural sugar count from their total daily sugars? Or do you up the daily intake of suggested surfaces (26g) to include natural sugars."

    She seems to be concerned because they are going over the 26 g that is either from MFP or that she added from somewhere else (some old versions of the app have 26 g, I think, which is why I thought that was the source).

    Important to know -- and relevant to her question -- is that the sources for the 26 g (or similar) recommendations are talking about ADDED sugar only, so the answer is that if that's why she's concerned about it she should subtract natural sugars or increase it to include the average amount of natural sugars she eats (which is what MFP is trying to do, badly, with the 15% number). Or she can ignore it and look at other things if her main reason is just to make sure she's eating a healthy balanced diet.

    I don't see that she's saying she's made a decision to eat under 26 g of ALL sugars on her own (if so, why is she asking if she has to count natural sugars) or asking for advice on how to do that (she knows, cut back on foods with intrinsic sugars like fruit and veg, but why is that necessarily healthy, which is what she seems to be wondering about).

    Anyway, obviously she can clarify if she's still around!
  • AnnPT77
    AnnPT77 Posts: 33,942 Member
    Personally, I got rid of sugar tracking in my MFP diary and replaced it with tracking fiber, once I realized I was going over the MFP default sugar goal every day, when the only added sugar in most days was a bit of concentrated fruit juice well down the list of ingredients in a single daily tablespoon of all-fruit spread. The rest of the sugar was inherent in low/non-fat dairy products that had no added sugars, and 2-3 daily servings of whole fruit. In that context, the sugar goal was just plain silly.

    In general, I prefer to review my food diary periodically and gradually reduce non-nutrition-dense foods, replacing them with others I enjoy that I find at least equally delicious, and that are more nutritious. Once I have a totally solid nutritional base of protein/healthy fats/fruits'n'veggies, I'm fine with some non-nutrition-dense foods, within my calorie goal (most of the time, anyway).

    IMO, the important goal is good daily nutrition, with avoiding certain things an almost-accidental side effect, rather than starting by restricting any particular food, category of food, or nutrient.
  • lemurcat12
    lemurcat12 Posts: 30,886 Member
    nutmegoreo wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    WinoGelato wrote: »
    Cbestinme wrote: »
    Excellent points thanks. The reason to make my own wouldn't be entirely for sugar, but to have better knowledge what's inside the sauce. Not sure how the tomatoes in jars stay fresh.:)

    Canning has long been a means of preserving foods and often canned tomatoes taste far better in winter months than any "fresh" tomatoes since they are likely not in season (at least not where I live).

    Was talking about glass jars of tomato sauce. Not sure how they get to stay good for long periods. :) agreed that "fresh" is a loose term if the farm isn't right there

    Why would a vacuum sealed glass jar not stay good for long periods? I've never canned at home but Bell jars are kind of the standard and those are glass?

    I have homemade pickles from just over 2 years ago. They are still good. Actually, they are awesome. Sweet with a spicy kick at the end. Just awesome.

    I keep meaning to make pickles. Used to with a friend, but when he moved away I stopped bothering. Should start again.

    Mainly responding to comment on your fabulous avi, though.