Staying Below Sugar Goal

I would only worry about the ones where sugar is an actual ingredient, not just a natural part of the item.

Me too! I always seem to go over my sugar allowance - I am now drinking black coffee no sugar; drinking green tea during the day as I am OK having that without sugar; choosing lower sugar breakfast cereals; and eating vegies rather than fruit.

Drinking milk is probably a real killer and not necessary nutritionally - milk has lactose which is sugar. I now have skim milk when I have milk on my cereal / in my hot drinks. Can you switch to low fat milk or skim milk rather than the creamer?

I know in other threads people have discussed this, and even just a couple of pieces of fruit can put you over. Eating fruit rather than drinking the juice is a better choice and will also give you more fibre than straight juice. Maybe limit juice to once or twice a week?

I am determined to lose weight and to me, sugar is sugar is sugar - I don't care where it comes from, if I can avoid it I will!

All good conversations so I think you are on the right track. MFP has very low goals, compared to a "standard guide" such as the one on the side of the bread I just ate. For a 2,000 cal diet (many of us are lower), the recommended grams is 300g carb. I think MFP philosophy is to lose weight, cut sugar. Maybe unrealistic.

Does MFP ever reply to these questions, or just the users?

I'm confused about why you bumped your own thread from 7.5 years ago, but welcome back. Are you at goal or wanting to lose?

I'm under my sugars every day. But my diet is plant based with seafood, eggs and some dairy (pescatarian).

The only added sugar for me is a rare cup of tea.

lemurcat2 wrote: »

Original post is from before the second Obama presidential term officially began.

OP bumped the thread with a link to this: http://www.reducetriglycerides.com/diet_triglycerides_sugar.htm

The link confirms what many told OP before (the recommended sugar limits -- not MFP's goals, but the ones to pay attention to for most people -- refer to free sugars, not sugar in fruit, dairy, and veg, etc.). I would personally not limit foods like fruit or plain greek yogurt due to misplaced concern about "sugar" given MFP's goal if I were also feeling satisfied with my diet, hitting my calories, and getting sufficient protein, healthy fats, and veg (which also have sugar, but not as much as fruit).

It's otherwise a pretty silly link, however, since it asserts: "Although we are eating way too much sugar, consuming less sugar is not that easy as it would seem. Cutting back to 10 - 12 teaspoons a day is going to be tough."

IME, this is not really true. I even cut added sugar entirely out for a while as an experiment and found it pretty easy, and my MFP diary confirmed that I was not getting sugar from surprising sources. So I would say it's pretty easy to avoid added sugar for the most part (obviously if one eats dessert foods, cereals or yogurts with added sugar (plenty don't have it), or various other packaged items with lots of added sugar, you may end up excessing a goal, but it's not like it's difficult to see or limit what has added sugar).

What OP's particular concern is now, hard to know, since she didn't say when she posted her link, and the first post was so very long ago.

Damn, I can't believe I missed that, I've been pretty good at noticing the OP date!!

knay112 wrote: »

Goodmorning!

I have a question that's been on my mind for a bit.

For my diet plan I pro-rated the recommended daily values for 2000 kcal to a 1400 kcal, which should (and it does) free me of 1 pound a week.

I usually meet my goals, except for sugar. I really watch my intake, read labels etc. but I just can't seem to mee that one goal!
By the time I've had breakfast, snack and lunch, I am already 3 grams over my daily goal of 50g of sugar.

I have a 4 oz glass of low sugar orange juice every morning, which gives me 10 sugars and I really don't want to quit that as I eat too little fruit as it is.

Other suppliers are my yogurt (Fage 0%) which I believe is the one yogurt with the lowes sugar out there.

Strangely enough, my coffee creamer (Land O Lakes Fat Free Half & Half) is another big supplier of sugar. I have tried to switch to Coffee Mate, but that was just so watery and tasteless...

Then, my lunch consists of yogurt (see above) and a mix of 3/4 cup of Kellog's All Bran Wheat Flakes, and 1/4 cup of Just Bunches. They are good for 5 grams of sugar each. Also something I really do not want to change.

Last but not least, I like to drink a glass of milk (8oz, let's not go overboard) with my dinner. My milk of choice is Hood Simply Smart Fat Free, which has no less than 12 grams of sugar!

So, we get to the question...

Am I being too anal about this?
Did I go wrong in taking the pro-rated sugar goal?

Any suggestions are welcome!

Honestly? I would suggest changing things that you're not willing to change as your only solution.

Learn to like black coffee. Those creamers often have too much sugar and trans fat to fit into a healthy diet.

Stop trying to replace actual fruit with juice. A cup of raspberries is half the sugar of your 4oz orange juice, and it has dietary fiber, which is hugely important for your health and digestion. Recent studies have shown that fruit juice is not as healthy as we once thought and regular consumption of it can increase your risk of cancer and diabetes. Also, the recommendation of daily fruit also comes with the recommendation of variety. You aren't going to get the intended nutritional benefits of fruit just by drinking orange juice as it is lacking in many micronutrients that other fruit will provide. You should be eating actual fruit that still contains its fiber and you should be varying the types of fruit you consume. Otherwise, I don't see it as worth the insulin response.

Have you looked into other cereals? I eat a lot of dry Cheerios and never go over my sugar goal. If that doesn't work for you, look for whole grain and sugar free anything, really. You can also cut out the cereal and eat some veggies and leafy greens instead. Breakfast cereal is known as having a lot of sugar, so you might be making things more difficult for yourself by including it if you don't like/can't find sugar free options.

Also, you can try unsweetened cashew, almond, or soy milk instead of dairy milk. They often have the same calcium content with much lower calories and no sugar. I prefer Silk unsweetened vanilla cashew milk personally: 25 calories a cup, more calcium than dairy milk, and no sugar.

My mom, who probably consumes under 10% of her calories in added sugar, and doesn't drink soda or fruit juice, is susceptible to all the "SUGAR IS GOING TO KILL YOU" hype and just asked me to print out this article for her: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/22/well/eat/the-downside-of-having-a-sweet-tooth.html

What on earth is 'low sugar orange juice', sounds horribly processed to me.

Im always under on my sugar levels but way way over on the fat.

Why dont you just have milk in your coffee, what is all this 'coffee creamer' stuff, again sounds processed.

Processed breakfast cereal nearly always has added sugar, even though most of them taste awful, so have some eggs on toast or a small omelette or something