Sugar. I consume too much sugar. Help!
Replies
-
I also consumed too much sugar--in soda, pastries, cakes, cookies, coffee drinks. I honestly think I was addicted. I had to cut it out entirely for awhile to understand how much it ruled my cravings and my life. I stopped eating it about 6 weeks ago and have lost 15 pounds and feel great. I know that many people here are able to consume sugar in moderation and have great success, but, for me, sugar wasn't something I was able to do in moderation. During the holidays, I allowed myself a couple of really sugary treats and definitely felt it for the rest of the day. I just wanted to more as soon as the sugar high subsided. I know cutting it out entirely sounds extreme, but it has worked well for many. Something to consider....2
-
lovetolose20 wrote: »I know that I eat too many sweets. I love sweets, but I know it can't be good for me to eat as much as I do. Can you please give me some advice as to why too much sugar is a bad thing. I don't get many fruits/veggies or even real food into my diet, it's mostly filled with cookies, chocolate, breads, it's not good.
Advice please
You seem to have assessed your situation clearly. My advice would be to figure out why you don't get much "real food", and do something to change that. It looks like you're mainly living on snacks now, so you need to start planning "normal" daily meals instead.
Use the MFP food and activity chart so you can see the numbers for what you're doing each day. Then make adjustments regarding any foods which may be contributing unusually high numbers to your calories.0 -
ILiftHeavyAcrylics wrote: »Personally I believe in more of an "opt in" rather than "opt out" approach to diet. So instead of thinking about how much sugar you can't have, think about how many servings of veggies/fruit you should have, how much protein, how much fat, etc. Once you have all of those nutritional requirements met, whatever's left is okay to use for sweets. It's really 6 of one, half a dozen of the other I guess, but it helps me to think about what I'm including instead of what I'm excluding.
It's the same as planning a budget. You start with the amount of money you have, and then you deduct the bills you have to pay first. Mortgage, car payment, student loans (groan), etc. Whatever's left is okay to use to go to the movies.
^^^ Awesome advice is awesome!0 -
Sugar saps nutrients from the body. You need SOME sugar of course. Naturally occurring sugars are the best like in fruit. I personally feel awful the morning after consuming too much sugar. Usually it is refined processed sugar that makes me feel like that.
I have done 2 sugar detoxes in my lifetime and both times when I broke it and consumed sugar I felt drained and sick the next day. Stuff like that makes you think.0 -
starryphoenix wrote: »Sugar saps nutrients from the body. You need SOME sugar of course. Naturally occurring sugars are the best like in fruit. I personally feel awful the morning after consuming too much sugar. Usually it is refined processed sugar that makes me feel like that.
I have done 2 sugar detoxes in my lifetime and both times when I broke it and consumed sugar I felt drained and sick the next day. Stuff like that makes you think.
How does sugar sap nutrients from the body? Do you have any sources to cite for this?
7 -
Sugar isn't inherently bad or harmful, but it is high in calories and doesn't have much nutritional value. Other than a lot of carbohydrate, that is, and unless you are a marathon runner closing in on mile 20, you are not likely to have any ill effects from not having enough carbs.
However, a lot of people DO suffer ill effects from deficiency of the things that sugar might be crowding out of their diet due to their filling up on cookies but not their veggies. I mention the part about marathon runners partly as a joke, but as a distance runner myself there seriously are runs when I take in a steady diet of sugar because I need a quick source of fuel that is light to carry and quickly eaten/digested. I'm out there for a long run burning a ton more calories than I am ingesting, then going home to eat a nutritious meal, so I'm not too worried about any ill effects from sports gels. There are also people trying to gain weight for various reasons (not me....never me....) who might be able to help themselves pack in some extra calories for their gain by adding sweet treats into their diet IN ADDITION to eating food that meets their macro/micronutrient needs.
But in everyday life for people who struggle with either weight gain or nutritional deficiencies, it is really easy to take in a ton of calories worth of fuel we don't need, fuel that gets stored as fat on our body, when we ingest a lot of sugar. The biggest problem isn't with the sugar you might find naturally in an apple, but with with extra sugar that is added to things like cookies. The sugar in apples and cookies is the same substance when it hits your bloodstream, but the big difference between the two is that the sugar in the apple is contained in a nutritious package....the apple has fiber to fill you up, plus a ton of vitamins, and so most people aren't going to eat so many apples on a consistent basis that they gain weight from it. A piece of cake, however, is a more concentrated source of sugar, not likely to be filling, not typically containing any nutrition that you need, so people tend to overeat the cake and are with left ingesting lots of calories but not much else.
I don't see a problem with having a sweet treat as part of an overall healthy diet that fits with a calorie budget and meets nutritional needs, the issue is when the sugar crowds out nutrition or adds calories that are stored as unwanted fat gain.2 -
Sugar is not evil. But it concerns me when someone says they MOSTLY eat cookies and bread, without fruit or vegetables. Honestly, just stop doing that. You are an adult. Treat your body well and give it nutrients.8
-
starryphoenix wrote: »Sugar saps nutrients from the body. You need SOME sugar of course. Naturally occurring sugars are the best like in fruit. I personally feel awful the morning after consuming too much sugar. Usually it is refined processed sugar that makes me feel like that.
I have done 2 sugar detoxes in my lifetime and both times when I broke it and consumed sugar I felt drained and sick the next day. Stuff like that makes you think.
You actually don't need to consume any sugar. At all. The body can meet all of its needs using gluconeogenesis.0 -
ditto!Spliner1969 wrote: »I choose no sugar added foods if possible, and use stevia for sweetener in drinks when available. I also drink mostly water, or diet soda if I want soda. I will eat sugar in foods, or in deserts, if there is no other choice, I simply limit how much if possible. Try moderation instead of quitting it cold turkey, you'll find that when you do use sugar after doing without it as often as possible, that it takes much less to satisfy your cravings.
0 -
starryphoenix wrote: »Sugar saps nutrients from the body.
So eating a clementine or some beets is a net nutrient drain? Yeah, seems plausible.
Eating a diet disproportionately high in sugar is a bad idea, since you may be eating low nutrient sugary things (often with many calories from fat or starch, not sugar), INSTEAD of other things you need in your diet, like protein, healthy fats, and vegetables, as well as other sources of micronutrients and fiber. This doesn't mean that sugar "saps" these things (many of the foods that provide them also contain sugar) but that sugar ON ITS OWN doesn't provide much but calories and can therefore take up room that could be better spent on other things (especially since many people tend to find sugary foods, especially when combined with fat, delicious and so overeat them). (For the record, even though sugar is fad enemy #1 these days, solid fats (sat fat) and some other sources of added fat similarly provide nothing besides calories so should be limited for the same reasons.)Naturally occurring sugars are the best like in fruit. I personally feel awful the morning after consuming too much sugar. Usually it is refined processed sugar that makes me feel like that.
Fruit contains (in various percentages) mainly fructose, glucose, and sucrose. Sucrose is made of (and easily broken down by the body into) glucose and fructose. Added sugar tends to be sucrose or, in other words, glucose plus fructose. I don't eat much HFCS myself, but if you do, that's also fructose and glucose (55% fructose vs. 50% in sucrose). So any idea that there is some special "processed" sugar that your body treats differently isn't supported by the facts.
Now, might you overeat sugar more from sweets than whole foods like fruit? Sure, but that's not about the type of sugar, but how much you overeat or the foods you are choosing, including the other sources of calories that go along with the sweets (usually lots of fat, which is not in fruit, and no fiber). Bigger thing is probably that many feel mentally bad after going nuts on sweets and not eating a bunch of clementines or insane amount of strawberries.I have done 2 sugar detoxes in my lifetime and both times when I broke it and consumed sugar I felt drained and sick the next day. Stuff like that makes you think.
It does, in that I've given up added sugar for 30 days a couple of times and never found that I felt different than when I was eating added sugar. (One of the times was even in Jan when I don't eat much fruit, so I was eating quite low sugar that time.) I typically eat sugar in moderation, though -- it's never been my major weakness.6 -
This content has been removed.
-
https://youtu.be/TmDRmr_KFu4
There's different opinions about sugar. Some say sugar is totally fine, especially given that our bodies run on glucose, as long as you eat a low fat diet. It's dietary fat that gets in the way of sugar absorption that leads to blood sugar swings and weight gain. Sugar by itself is fuel. Getting it from whole foods like dates, other fruits is ideal. Fatty cakes and cookies as well as HFCS give sugar a bad rap.0 -
Oh, lordy. Durianrider.5
-
WinoGelato wrote: »Oh dear. The demonization has begun.
Look I don't think OP needs this thread to turn into a debate about whether or not sugar is toxic or addictive, and whether Big Processed Food is manipulating us all.
This OP mentioned knowing she needs to eat more "real food". I truly think the most helpful advice for her is to provide recommendations about how to build a sensible diet around primarily nutrient dense foods and leave the fearmongering out. Once she starts eating more "real food" then she can determine if there is a place in her diet for added sugar or not.
Yes, Wino my post was directed to you.
0 -
I found that it was easier to reduce my consumption of low-nutrient-density sweets if I made it a point to get 3 servings of whole fruit daily. It seemed to reduce the cravings, for me. Yes, fruit has sugar, but typically not as much as cookies, candy, etc., and in fruit the sugar comes packaged with filling fiber, health-building micronutrients (vitamins, anti-oxidants, etc.), and more good stuff generally.
This doesn't work for everyone, and may take a couple of weeks to be effective even for those it helps, but perhaps it could be a worthwhile experiment.1 -
When your body gets excess sugar, it stores it as fat for energy for later. It's really simple. You can still have your sweets, but it'd be better to make sure you fit them in without going over your sugar goal.0
-
When your body gets excess sugar, it stores it as fat for energy for later. It's really simple. You can still have your sweets, but it'd be better to make sure you fit them in without going over your sugar goal.
1) Calorie goal. Make it fit in your calorie goal. If you are under calories for the day, but over the sugar goal, your body is not going to create fat, it will use the energy.
2) Your body will store excess calories as fat for energy later.5 -
When your body gets excess sugar, it stores it as fat for energy for later. It's really simple. You can still have your sweets, but it'd be better to make sure you fit them in without going over your sugar goal.
Your body stores any extra calories as fat, regardless of the source. Doesn't matter if you are over your sugar goal, your fat goal, your protein goal, etc.3 -
When your body gets excess sugar, it stores it as fat for energy for later. It's really simple. You can still have your sweets, but it'd be better to make sure you fit them in without going over your sugar goal.
No, it doesn't, even if you go over your sugar goal. I wish this myth would just die and be buried.
Excess calories causes fat gain/storage. One can still lose weight if they go over the sugar goal but stay in a deficit. You body constantly stores and uses its fat stores.2 -
I feel ya lovetolose20 ! I don't think that sugar is fine or that any kind of fructose is either. I believe it's a highly addictive toxin and only when surrounded by appropriate amounts of fiber and phytochemicals, is it safe to consume.
I think that we as a public have been fooled into thinking that it's ok, but I think that we've been buying into destructive advertising for decades. Sugar and High Fructose Corn Syrup (as well as the many other names sugar masquerades as) have been insidious in processed foods for most of our lives and I believe that's why we all have a sweet tooth today.
There are many Books, Documentaries, and Medical Reports describing what happens to to the body when it ingests these chemical compounds. It's not exactly optimal for health or weight loss (again, IMO). It was essential for me to educate myself about this so, of course, I think it's important for everyone to make informed decisions.
Dr. Lustig, is that you?1
This discussion has been closed.
Categories
- All Categories
- 1.4M Health, Wellness and Goals
- 393.6K Introduce Yourself
- 43.8K Getting Started
- 260.3K Health and Weight Loss
- 175.9K Food and Nutrition
- 47.5K Recipes
- 232.5K Fitness and Exercise
- 431 Sleep, Mindfulness and Overall Wellness
- 6.5K Goal: Maintaining Weight
- 8.6K Goal: Gaining Weight and Body Building
- 153K Motivation and Support
- 8K Challenges
- 1.3K Debate Club
- 96.3K Chit-Chat
- 2.5K Fun and Games
- 3.8K MyFitnessPal Information
- 24 News and Announcements
- 1.1K Feature Suggestions and Ideas
- 2.6K MyFitnessPal Tech Support Questions