SUGAR... natural or artificial

question - where does turbinado fit into all this? friend? or foe?

This is a big debate...
I used to eat a lot of equal , etc., like 12 packs or more a day , put in oatmeal, yogurt, coffee everything. Also I drank a little diet Pepsi daily
As of a week ago I stopped because Im trying to go as close to raw and plant-based as I can.
I guess artificial sweeteners can be good for diabetics and people who are trying to lose weight but it has to be broken down in the liver and if you use it throughout the day you're not giving your liver a break ...

The liver helps break down fat and flushes toxins out of your body so I thought it would be good for ME to quit the fake sugars so my liver can break down fat and flush out all the crap I was putting in my body a week ago. I have lost a few pounds and let me say this is HUGE because I haven't lost in 5 months ( I have Hashimoto's(hypothyroid) I am wondering if all the artificial sweeteners I was ingesting was part of the reason I wasn't losing weight ..

Anybody with an auto-immune disease/disorder should consider limiting extra chemicals, toxins, hormones, and animal products because our immune system is already compromised and could use some TLC on our part, I know I would do anything if I can to help my thyroid to function better, because medicines are not gonna make me feel 100% better.

Also just because something is "natural" doesnt mean its good for you and vice versa. Whatever works for you and makes you feel healthy go for it!

Everything has sugar in it. Much of it you cannot control. Control what you can. I use splenda in everything I would normally put sugar. Frankly, and to my suprise, I cannot tell between the two. This helps a lot. For instance, now, instead of a cup of coffee (two cream two sugar) being 160 calories, it is around 30.

MFP is a program that tracks calories. Sugar has a lot of calories. Eliminate what you can control is my advice.

Elijah

A good start would be to research why beer (and other alcohols) make you fat, how your body digests fat, and how your body handles toxins. You will notice a pattern. Your liver is hugely responsible for both the breaking down of fats and also the handling of toxins. When you consume something that your body perceives as toxic, your liver will (wisely) try to process that toxin before getting to the rest of it's business (like creating bile acids to break down fat other nutrients). Because of this inefficiency, you can end up storing fat from the good foods you eat while your body is fighting toxins. To me, it is as simple as this: In general, if a product is not found in nature, your body will have a harder time assimilating it which decreases your efficiency to meet your goal. This can be anything from artificial sweeteners and sugar alcohols to synthetic vitamins. On the other hand, don't make yourself crazy about all of this stuff because it could case you to give up before you reach your goal. Good luck!

Mella, what "gray areas" are you hearing about stevia? I use it and would be very interested in knowing!

I prefer artificial sweeteners because the calories are fewer. And for me, eating sugar makes me crave more sugar, so I'm trying to avoid it as much as possible for the time being.

So I just started tracking sugar.

I made a smoothie for breakfast (1/2 banana, 1/4 cup Coconut Dream Coconut milk, 1/2 cup 2% Fage Greek Yogurt, 1/4 cup milk, 1 tblsp Better Than Peanut Butter, 1 tblsp peanut butter, 1 tblsp cocoa, 1 tsp NuNaturals Stevia)... and the tracker says I have used ALL of my sugar for the day.

How in the HECK would anyone keep within that goal. I know that peanut butter has sugar in it, and banana has natural sugar... but HOLY MOLEY, does anyone stay within what is allowed?

P.S. I am a stevia fan.

Unless you are diabetic, there really is no need to track sugar.

As every overweight person is told Sugar... its bad for you... I was told too... though I do not have a sweet tooth but some days you feel like having somethings sweet. So i was considering substituting sugar but then i thought WHY? any substitute is chemical when you talk about eating organic why would you want to eat chemicals... plus when i started mfp this time i know 1tsp is not so many calories... you can totally stop having sugar or just reduce the quantity..

Sugar isn't "bad for you," it's bad in the quantities that people in America usually consume. It's bad for people who have conditions like diabetes.

If I want to sweeten something, I generally use a little sugar (no more than two teaspoons), but I prefer to eat things without sweetening them, to the extent I can. My problem with certain artificial sweeteners isn't that they're artificial, it's that our experience with them is limited. We don't know the health hazards and government health authorities have often been too lax, or there simply were effects that were not predicted. I do occasionally drink diet drinks, but a dietitian told me to limit my consumption of Diet Coke.

I think I tried Stevia once and didn't like it because it had an aftertaste. Maybe I should try it again. But I prefer to train my tastebuds not to want too much sugar. I definitely have a sweet tooth.

I, too, find that the sugar limit is set very low on MFP.

I like the taste of sugar over artificial sugar, so I just use that. It has nothing to do with being fearful of chemicals or anything like that. For me, it's all about taste. I just make sure that it fits in my macros.