Attempting to reduce sugar...need insights

I would say, just worry about the added sugars at first.

I keep my fruit servings to no more than two per day, and one of those is berries which are low sugar. Bananas are pretty high sugar as far as fruits go. I don't use dried fruits very often.

Then find breads and cereals that don't have much sugar. I only buy plain old fashioned oatmeal and whole wheat bread, the fiber offsets the carbs/sugars.

I buy whole or 2% milk and plain yogurt and add fruit and a tiny bit of sugar to yogurt. Like 2g per serving as opposed to the 25g-40g in pre-sweetened yogurt.

Weight loss and exercise in general should help the A1C.

Yes, as others said the MFP sugar goal isn't that helpful since it's all sugars, and fruits and veg (among other foods) have sugar. Many find eating lots of fruit can help them limit other sugars.

I personally think 35 g for ALL sugars with a 2000 cal goal is too little. My goal is often to get that many grams of sugar from vegetables, and anything that limits veg and fruit consumption isn't a good idea, IMO. Bananas are high sugar fruits, but eating one a day is perfectly reasonable and healthy, and while craisins often do have added sugar (I'd check the ingredients), it shouldn't be that much, and they can make oats taste extra good, which is helpful in keeping up a good breakfast routine (assuming that fills you up). I'd focus much more on added sugars, which unfortunately you have to kind of calculate yourself.

The issue with lots of added sugar is that it can crowd out other foods you need or cause you to go over calories (many foods with lots of cals from added sugar have lots of cals from fat too).

I'm assuming you eat a good amount of added sugar (sweets, sweetened foods like cereals with sugar, stuff like that?). If so, cut way down on those. Some find it easier not to eat any for a while. (I did this at one point as an experiment and since I was working on emotional eating.) Others find it can be easier to pick a certain amount to permit in on a weekly basis or a daily basis (i.e., have a small piece of chocolate after dinner). It really depends on what you are finding difficult, if anything.

Rather than track sugar, I'd track carbs (no need to go low, MFP goal is fine, or maybe a lower number that feels good to you) and then fiber (you want more of this), and try to get the fiber from whole food sources -- what that will mean is that you are getting your carbs mostly from high-nutrient sources. Another thing to do (which is really what I do) is just look over your diet and see if your sugars are mostly coming from whole foods or if they are coming from foods with lots of added sugars -- if so, limit the latter. It's mostly common sense.

I hope this helped some.

I won't get into wether you should or shouldn't worry about sugar as that debate is getting boring IMHO.

To answer your question, I would recommend limiting fruit to berries, and having the loin's share of my carbs in the form of veggies...