Sugar...why doesn’t MFP know the difference?

disalvatore17 · July 2018

Is MFP working on detailing the difference between added sugars and naturally occurring sugars??

TavistockToad · July 2018

kd_mazur · July 2018

MFP isn't working on it because sugar is sugar.

DoubleUbea · July 2018

Can you explain the difference and how your body treats it?

malibu927 · July 2018

Food labels are just beginning to differentiate the two so MFP has never been able to before. Besides, your body can’t tell the difference.

cwolfman13 · July 2018

Food labels in the US don't differentiate between natural and added sugars and that's where most of the database entries originate. That is/will be changing, but it will still be awhile before the database is populated with that given that most entries are user entered.

diannethegeek · July 2018

The vast majority of entries in the food database here come from user-entered data based on nutrition labels. Other entries come from places like the USDA food products database. Since neither of these separate added and naturally occurring sugars, it's not something that's likely to be put into practice here until the information exists somewhere that users can access it.

I already don't trust 80% of the entries in the database. Asking users to do a little math or take their best guess at what percentage of sugars are added in a product sounds like a recipe for disaster to me.

sijomial · July 2018

You do know that refined sugar comes from naturally occurring plants?
Sucrose is sucrose whether you stir a spoonful into your coffee or suck on a sugar cane.

DragonHasTheSapphire · July 2018

Yep, so the sugar in fruit is literally processed the same way if you were to eat ice cream. The key reason why many people would prefer you to eat fruit instead is because it contains something *most, not all* "sugary" products don't have: Fiber. This prevents blood sugar spikes, which is why I'd rather have fruit than a soda since I will get sugar rushes and crashes.

In terms of weight loss, added sugar or natural occuring sugars are irrelevant. As long as you're in a calorie deficit you will lose weight.

VUA21 · July 2018

Because your body doesn't know the difference either. Sugar is sugar. The only difference is the type and amount of other micro/macronutrients that are present in the food with the sugar.

FireOpalCO · July 2018

Disagreeing with the crowd here.

I would like to see naturally occurring sugar separated out from added sugar. If someone was trying to cut their sugar intake, it's the added sugar that would be targeted and tracked. I eat a lot of fresh fruit and see red in sugar over and over again. I'm not gorging on candy bars, I'm having a weighed portion of green grapes as a snack! I'm about ready to turn off sugar as a tracked item because it's effectively useless.

malibu927 · July 2018

A lot of us who said what we did above don’t track sugar either. It doesn’t mean we haven’t cut down our consumption of it, it’s just not really necessary unless you have a medical reason to watch your intake.

ccrdragon · July 2018

Which is exactly what you should do - sugar, where ever it comes from is simply a carb and doesn't need to be tracked separately. And again, as has been previously stated, since the nutrition info on the labels has only recently started to separate out added sugar from the naturally occurring sugars, this has not been possible in the past.

TavistockToad · July 2018

i swapped it for fibre a looooooooooong time ago. much more useful

livingleanlivingclean · July 2018

Until it's on labels, that won't really be possible. I know what I eat, I know where the sugar comes from and I can mentally add up the "added" sugar... Much like those who want to track net carbs can easily subtract fiber from total carbs.

kshama2001 · July 2018

I swapped Sugar for Fiber (and Sodium for Iron - I'm anemic) a long time ago.

loveisapineapple · July 2018

I can see how it would be useful, most people are trying to do more than just lose weight - they are concerned about health as well. The daily recommendation is I think no more than 25 gms of added sugar (for women) per day.
I just look down my food list and it's pretty easy to see what is added and what is naturally occurring so I'm not concerned about it, but I can see why it would be useful to people.

cwolfman13 · July 2018

As has been mentioned, that can't really be done at this point because food labels don't break it out (though that is changing)...so how would people entering something into the database be able to break it out?

TrishSeren · July 2018

Ditto, turns out I was barely eating half my recommended fibre intake which is more important to me to track.

aokoye · July 2018

The problem, as people keep saying, is that it's not on food labels. Let's use say, ketchup as an example. Tomatoes have plenty of sugar in them and it isn't at all uncommon for ketchup to have added sugar. The same is true with some commercially produced pasta sauces. What about banana bread? Bananas have sugar in them and most banana bread involves added sugar as well. Strawberry lemonade made with actual strawberries and lemon juice - same deal.

Of course if you're thinking about fruit having fiber along with sugar then you may as well throw juice right out of the window.

janejellyroll · July 2018

There are lots of users here who are concerned about their health and still don't see the point of an arbitrary sugar limit. In the absence of a medical condition that requires it to be limited, most people who are controlling their calorie intake and getting sufficient fat and protein don't need to worry about sugar.

Sugar...why doesn’t MFP know the difference?

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