Natural Sugar vs. Refined Sugar

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bellanena
bellanena Posts: 74
in Food and Nutrition
On my diary settings I had sugar on there, but it's so frustrating to see that I'm going over on my Sugar ALL the time. It's very rare that I eat candy, donuts, cakes, etc..So it's not sugar from those sources. But from Fruit. I will usually eat 2-4 cups of fruit a day. Apple, Orange, Berries, occasionally a banana, grapes..etc. The other two higher sources of sugar I will eat are cereal and yogurt, which isn't everday...But is this really bad for weight loss? I have seen results..but I want to make sure I'm being healthy. And I hate seeing the red :sad:

Any nice comments are welcomed :smile:
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Replies

  • UpEarly
    UpEarly Posts: 2,555 Member
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    Unless you have a health-related reason to limit your sugar (like diabetes), I wouldn't worry about tracking sugar. Sugar is a carb, and I assume you are also tracking carbs? Stay within your carb macro, keep eating your fruit and don't worry about the sugar number.

    I never tracked sugar, but I am sure I went over every single day - eating fruit, milk, veggies, etc. It didn't seem to hinder my weight loss at all.
  • hot_sauce_88
    hot_sauce_88 Posts: 3
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    Fruit really isn't that great for you just because of the sugar. I lost about 40 pounds a while back by eating a very strict diet that cut sugar out almost completely. I couldn't even eat carrots because of their sugar content.

    So, long story short, sugar is sugar for the most part (unless it High Fructose Corn Syrup... then it's the devil)
  • VirginiaWoof
    VirginiaWoof Posts: 147
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    I have similar problems. Berries are a good alternative to certain sugar packed fruits like apples and bananas but obviously you shouldn't worry about completely cutting fruit out of your diet! And obviously the health benefits of fruit vs processed sugar are infinite...
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    Unless you have a health-related reason to limit your sugar (like diabetes), I wouldn't worry about tracking sugar. Sugar is a carb, and I assume you are also tracking carbs? Stay within your carb macro, keep eating your fruit and don't worry about the sugar number.

    I never tracked sugar, but I am sure I went over every single day - eating fruit, milk, veggies, etc. It didn't seem to hinder my weight loss at all.

    ^ This,

    You would be better off tracking sodium, fiber or other micro nutrients.
  • Sidesteal
    Sidesteal Posts: 5,510 Member
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    Unless you have a health-related reason to limit your sugar (like diabetes), I wouldn't worry about tracking sugar. Sugar is a carb, and I assume you are also tracking carbs? Stay within your carb macro, keep eating your fruit and don't worry about the sugar number.


    ^ This.
  • bellanena
    bellanena Posts: 74
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    Thank you! I needed to hear that. I do not have diabetes, but it's in my family,so I am concerned of having diabetes someday (hence the reason for the weight loss)
  • VirginiaWoof
    VirginiaWoof Posts: 147
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    Fruit really isn't that great for you just because of the sugar. I lost about 40 pounds a while back by eating a very strict diet that cut sugar out almost completely. I couldn't even eat carrots because of their sugar content.

    So, long story short, sugar is sugar for the most part (unless it High Fructose Corn Syrup... then it's the devil)

    fruit is great for you! it's packed with all kinds of vitamins and anti oxidants!
  • curvykim78
    curvykim78 Posts: 799 Member
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    I'm a fruit lover as well. I don't panic if I go over when I know I'm eating healthy foods. Just don't go over eating cupcakes, donuts, Skittles, etc. That's where the bad stuff is. Fruit's a lot of water, and it's better for you than other things such as chips, pastas, etc. Good luck!
  • erickirb
    erickirb Posts: 12,293 Member
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    Fruit really isn't that great for you just because of the sugar. I lost about 40 pounds a while back by eating a very strict diet that cut sugar out almost completely. I couldn't even eat carrots because of their sugar content.

    So, long story short, sugar is sugar for the most part (unless it High Fructose Corn Syrup... then it's the devil)

    And sugar is just a carb which has 4 caloires per gram, as long as you stay withing your carb limit, the type of carb does not matter that much, and you get many other benefits from fruit, such as fiber, vitamins and minerals that you don't get with a lot of other carbs.
  • bellanena
    bellanena Posts: 74
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    Thanks to all! Some really great feedback! I'm going to continue to track my fiber instead and focus on carbs! :smile:
  • bearxfoo
    bearxfoo Posts: 81 Member
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    Natural sugar is good for you. Refined, white, processed sugar is different from fruit sugars, and your body processes it differently too (from my understanding).

    Fruit is VERY good for you. It's a wonderful source of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and natural sugar.

    Unless you're eating packets of donuts, cake, cookies, ice cream.. I wouldn't worry about your sugar.
  • UpEarly
    UpEarly Posts: 2,555 Member
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    Thank you! I needed to hear that. I do not have diabetes, but it's in my family,so I am concerned of having diabetes someday (hence the reason for the weight loss)

    That's a fantastic reason to be here! Losing weight and getting regular exercise make a bigger difference in diabetes prevention than avoiding sugar. :-)

    Good luck!
  • hpsnickers1
    hpsnickers1 Posts: 2,783 Member
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    If the fruit isn't stopping you from losing weight then enjoy it.

    If the weight loss comes to a stop it might be worth cutting back or eliminating it to see if it jumpstarts the weight loss again.

    The fructose in fruit and the fructose in table sugar or HFCS are the same. The difference is you are eating fruit which is a whole food (with hundreds of other elements and compounds and nutrients that we don't know about - all working together to make that food healthier for you).
    Table sugar and HFCS are very refined and HFCS is extracted from corn using chemical solvents.
    But the body processes all fructose the same regardless of where it comes from - it goes to the liver and is converted into saturated fat and stored (too much fructose over the years can lead to NAFLD - Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease).

    I can't eat a lot of fruit. It will spike my blood sugar too high. I look for low-sugar fruit like berries. They're my fave, anyways. I'm a thin pre-diabetic. If you have diabetes in your family then be very careful with fruit, too.

    But I'm sure most people won't agree with this.
  • beckajw
    beckajw Posts: 1,738 Member
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    Thank you! I needed to hear that. I do not have diabetes, but it's in my family,so I am concerned of having diabetes someday (hence the reason for the weight loss)

    Don't worry about sugar. Sugar doesn't cause diabetes. Diabetics don't even have to track sugar. They track carbs.

    Fruit is full of vitamins and minerals and fiber and lots of good things for you. I'm not saying to eat fruit all day long, as with everything else, you should eat it in moderation. However, if your sugar is coming from natural things like fruit and dairy, I wouldn't be concerned about it.

    I think sodium, fiber, calcium are all more important to track than sugar.
  • Careolyn
    Careolyn Posts: 61
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    Fruit is a nutirious part of your diet. They are packed full of vitamins, minerals and fibre and can be a good defense against chronic disease (I am not a professional, but my good friend is a dietician and she always preaches the benefits of eating fruit--within reason!) You can research and see what fruits are higher in sugar (grapes, bananas, mangos, etc.) and maybe limit that to one a day, however if you are seeing results I wouldn't worry about it. What I do, because my sugar is always in the red on my diary, is that I mentally do not take into account the sugar from fruits. It makes me feel better, because I hate seeing red too!
  • bellanena
    bellanena Posts: 74
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    If the fruit isn't stopping you from losing weight then enjoy it.

    If the weight loss comes to a stop it might be worth cutting back or eliminating it to see if it jumpstarts the weight loss again.

    The fructose in fruit and the fructose in table sugar or HFCS are the same. The difference is you are eating fruit which is a whole food (with hundreds of other elements and compounds and nutrients that we don't know about - all working together to make that food healthier for you).
    Table sugar and HFCS are very refined and HFCS is extracted from corn using chemical solvents.
    But the body processes all fructose the same regardless of where it comes from - it goes to the liver and is converted into saturated fat and stored (too much fructose over the years can lead to NAFLD - Non-Alcoholic Fatty Liver Disease).

    I can't eat a lot of fruit. It will spike my blood sugar too high. I look for low-sugar fruit like berries. They're my fave, anyways. I'm a thin pre-diabetic. If you have diabetes in your family then be very careful with fruit, too.

    But I'm sure most people won't agree with this.

    Really good advice. Thank you
  • jonnie7053
    jonnie7053 Posts: 48 Member
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    Here's a good blog article about the differences between refined sugars and fruit sugars.
    I found this very helpful as i have a similar issue.

    http://jeremyfulloflife.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/fruit-sugar-vs-refined-sugar.html
  • peuglow
    peuglow Posts: 684 Member
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    Sugar is a far less important macro to track than protein, fats, and carbs (unless you have a medical issue). Remove it from the list and move on.
  • tigersword
    tigersword Posts: 8,059 Member
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    Natural sugar is good for you. Refined, white, processed sugar is different from fruit sugars, and your body processes it differently too (from my understanding).

    Fruit is VERY good for you. It's a wonderful source of vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, and natural sugar.

    Unless you're eating packets of donuts, cake, cookies, ice cream.. I wouldn't worry about your sugar.
    Actually, both sugars are exactly the same, regardless of source. Glucose, fructose, and sucrose are exactly the same as far as your body is concerned, whether it's from an apple or a Snickers bar.
  • Sarauk2sf
    Sarauk2sf Posts: 28,072 Member
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    Unless you have a medical issue, there is no reason to track sugar at all - it is just a subset of carbs - as long as you track that you are fine.

    Oh sugar, I just noticed that thread is 6 months old!!

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