Am I eating too much sugar? - Anything about Food - Dietitian's Corner

I just finished planning my meals for tomorrow and for Wednesday (I like to plan ahead) on a food journal I have on another website and I feel like maybe I'm eating too much sugar. But it seems to be from natural or "good" sources so I"m not sure what to think.

I do not buy anything with high fructose corn syrup. I actually just bought a different brand of ketchup because the Heinz I bought before has high fructose corn syrup (I realized; although I have a little bit left in the bottle to finish). I am THAT picky when I read labels that I even read the ketchup!!!

Like today, I had 60 grams of sugar. The thing I ate that contained the most sugar was a banana (14 grams) with breakfast. The second most was one of my homemade protein-oatmeal-raisin cookies with 9 grams but most of the sugar comes from the raisins and the natural honey that I put in instead of sugar (No Splenda for me ... my body doesn't agree with it). And tied with that was one serving of Dannon Activia vanilla yogurt at 9 grams.

Tomorrow, I'm set up for what seems like a whopping 89 grams of sugar. Due to one pear at breakfast (17 grams), a serving of Bush's baked beans fat-free veg with natural brown sugar (12 grams), 2 of my cookies (17 grams), and since I haven't let myself splurge in a long time, I'm also eating one piece of my homemade 100% cocoa fudge (19 grams sugar).

So I probably could do without the Baked Beans or the fudge but I don't eat the beans that often (but I LOVE them and they have great fiber!!) and I obviously don't eat fudge all the time.

For Wednesday, I'm at 60 grams again with 14 from a banana at breakfast, 9 from a Dannon yogurt, and 6 from milk, being my biggest.

Should I be worried that I so much over the recommended sugar intake (I think FDA says like 30 grams for my current calorie intake)? Like I said, I'm really not getting it from bad sources (except the fudge splurge, maybe the beans, and maybe the yogurt ... I know flavored yogurt has sugar added but I can't stomach the plain!)

Thoughts or comments?

Nir
Senior Administrator

Joined:	11 January 2006
Location:	Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom
Posts:	8274

Posted: 17 February 2009 09:35 am

Quote

You can get yogurt that is artificially sweetned (it will have less calories).

The distinction to make is between what I'd call 'natural' sugar, which is in fruit and in milk

and the sugar that is added. A note about Honey - sorry to break it to you but it counts as added sugar, it is as refined as one can go in every way.

I think the idea of limiting sugar to 10% of your calories principally applies to added sugar, so exclude the fruit and milk sugar and you're probably still doing OK.

I have a limit of 10% of my calories from processed foods so by definition I eat less added sugar but I eat lots of fruit so when natural sugars are taken into account I eat more overall sugar than you.

EDIT: a final note that once in your body both sugars and starches are converted to glucose so beyond a sensible attempt not to consume too many 'empty' calories (devoid of nutrition), the guideline is then meaningless because all carbohydrates even healthy ones (vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains) are glucose in your blood.

Last edited on 17 February 2009 09:37 am by Nir

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