Sugars?

Most people go over a little - if you eat fruits and drink milk. Generally not a problem that I've noticed, as long as it's not Snickers or Milky Ways :laugh: Or a lot of junk.

To answer your question, sugar is the simplest form of carbohydrates, it is recommended we have no more than 300 gms of sugar in a 2,000 calorie diet, so of coarse, with that said, the lower your calories the lower your carbs or sugar.

So best advise I can share with you is watch and count the sugar you add to a dish you are making, your cup of coffee or tea, begin reading labels.....

Sugar is digested and burned quickly which can sometimes leave you craving more, so begin cutting back slowly and you may soon see that your cravings for them will subside as well. Its so easy for those extra calories to creep into our day and if not accountable for them it can and usually does lead to weight gain.

Hope this helps you, have a wonderful day and great question.
Debbie

But are sugars from fruits better than sugars from candy and other junk foods?

I can eat an apple or a banana and EASILY use up my sugar allottment for the day - but that can't possibly be as bad as drinking a soda or eating candy.

In my opinion- it's okay so long as it's natural sugars from fruits or tomatoes for example. I go over every day. I don't drink milk or eat regular sugar, but I eat fruit (berries, grapefruits), have straight balsamic vinegar (both regular and white) on my salads, and eat tomatoes in my salads quite often. In that, there is always natural sugar. Can't avoid it. However, if you're eating cereals, snacks, candy, sauces, condiments,SODA, juice, dairy products like yogurt, etc. all may have hidden, real sugar in there in the form of sugar, high fructose corn syrup, chemical sugars (say malitol, dextrose, sucralose), etc. Even evaporated cane juice is thought of as more "healthy" for you than it really is.

Don't be fooled by supposed natural food stores either that use products containing naturally milled sugar, evaporated cane juice, beet sugar, fruit juice concentrates, etc. Sugar is sugar. If I do bake, I usually use either agave nectar (it's low on the GI), or raw honey (pure, unfiltered, unheated, etc.), or no sugar at all (banana bread I make is usually yummy and sweet enough with the natural sugars of the bananas).

I can't stress enough the juice thing either- Juice is supposedly healthy and if it's juiced right before your eyes, it can be... to an extent. But juice from Corp. giants- Tropicana (owned by Pepsi), Minute-Maid (owned by Coca Cola) remove most of the really important nutrients when they process, filter, pasteurize the juice. Don't even get me started on Ocean-Spray who uses either sugar or it's evil cousin Splenda. Even precious little Odwalla (also Coke owned) is basically just packaged sugar. Some of their juices even have sugar in them. Juices like Minute Maid are from concentrates and that's like the worst b/c it's juice sucked of all it's nutrients and basically all you have left is the sugar from the juice. Juice is many ways is probably worse than soda,.. scary thought.

If you really want to lose weight and treat your body with the respect it deserves, do what I do- become a label reader. Read every ingredient that you're putting into your body. If you don't recognize half of the names, think twice before putting those ingredients in your body. Often, things you're not familiar with, your body probably isn't either and scrambles to find a way to process it. And sometimes, it may give up, and your consuming nutrient-empty foods that are anything but empty calories.

Hope this helps! Keep up the good work! When it pays off, I know you're gonna beam from ear to ear. We all feel better about ourselves when we feel better. The physical better will affect the emotional and mental better!