Sugar...it's everywhere!

I have a general question about sugar. I'm afraid that it's everywhere; it's even in the "healthy" foods that I eat, such as: yogurt and oatmeal. There're about 7-9 grams of sugar in a serving of each. Does anyone know the daily average/limit for sugar?
Should I try natural yogurt and add my own sugar or what? I use the instant oatmeal packets and try to leave out some of the sugar, but really, how much sugar does that cut out?
Also, does anyone know the gram-to-tsp. conversion? How much is 7 grams of sugar?
Thanks -- sorry it's a pretty technical question...

Is anyone facing the same dilemma?

Wed. May 24, 12:01am

Yes, it's everywhere! Prepared foods have lots of sugars, you do better if you prepare your own and then add the minimum amount of sugar you can tolerate, or use whole fruits to sweeten, which is what I like to do.

Keep in mind that in milk products there are naturally occuring sugars. To see how much is added look at the stats for plain yogurt versus weetened and you'll see a big difference. 32 grams makes and ounce so seven grams is about 1/4 of an ounce. My sugar container says that one teaspoon has 4 grams, so 7 would be a little less than 2 teaspoons.

I ounce calculated that in a container of lowfat yogurt my friend was eating there was a much sugar as in Haagen Daas Ice cream, ounce for ounce. Often lowfat or nofat means there is more sugar than the regular product. Just start reading lots of labels and you'll see what's in stuff.

Wednesday, May 24, 2006, 5:53 AM

Americans have been "trained" to have a sweet tooth- most everything we eat that has been processed has some form of refined sugar most common: high fructose corn syrup (it's in everything- even bread!)

My recommendation- try to eat only naturally occurring sugars (think fruit and honey). The best way to accomplish this is converting to a natural and whole food diet. Or you can take a look at the foods you eat, look at what is in them and limit or eliminate the biggest offenders- anything you do to reduce your sugar intake will help with your overall health.

Check out some of these web sites about the dangers of sugar and high fructose corn syrup:
http://www.rheumatic.org/sugar.htm
http://ezinearticles.com/?Why-is-Refined-Sugar---Known-As-White-Sugar---Bad-for-You?&id=119462
http://www.noweightgaincookbooks.com/worse_than_sugar.htm
http://www.thenutritionreporter.com/fructose_dangers.html

Wednesday, May 24, 2006, 12:36 PM

Sugar

I have read that you should eliminate any forms of sugar that aren't natural. High Fructose Syrup is one of the worst for you. I read that less then 4 grams in a serving is okay.

Friday, April 20, 2007, 2:29 PM

One thing they are now telling breast cancer patients at the most advanced hospitals is that they should try to eliminate as much sugar as possible from the diet- because suagr is apparently conducive to a tumor friendly environment. (The idea is to create a tumor unfriendly environment in the body. This is achieved through a whole bunch of things including herbs, vitamins, foods, cutting out dairy and other sources of saturated fat.

Friday, April 20, 2007, 2:34 PM

All yogurt has naturally occurring sugar in it (lactose) so try to read the labels and avoid those with added fructose and high fructose corn syrup (those are the sugars to avoid!). I know Stonyfarm adds some kind of natural vegetable and fruit juices to flavor their yogurts.

Also regular oatmeal doesn't have sugar in it. I buy quaker instant oats, make it with water instead of milk, and instead of adding sugar I add berries, raisins or walnuts. I think it still tastes great!

As a general rule, I try to avoid foods with over 10g of sugar per serving, but that's just me.

Friday, April 20, 2007, 2:35 PM

Yep - the amount of sugar out there in processed foods is absolutely jaw-dropping once you start monitoring it and realizing how much you are eating on a day-to-day basis. My rule of thumb is: I don't buy a product if sugar is one of the first 5 ingredients.

It wasn't intentional but as I began monitoring sugar, salt, falt, trans-fats, empty carbs, etc. I just moved much more to a whole foods diet. Now when I am eating out or at a friend's and find myself eating what I think of as my 'old' foods - I can really taste sugar and salt and fat. It's almost gross sometimes. I would have never thought I'd be like this about food, but now I can't imagine eating any other way.

Friday, April 20, 2007, 2:53 PM

it amazes me that I can not buy a loaf of bread at the grocery store which does not have high furctose corn syrup in it - even the store bakery bread! I always buy my bread at Whole Foods now.

Friday, April 20, 2007, 5:03 PM

one tsp of sugar is 4 grams.

Friday, April 20, 2007, 6:42 PM

also, be sure to add up the DIFFERENT sugars in something -- a seemingly healthy granola bar I bought turned out to have 7 different sources of sugar, I couldn't believe it -- HFCS, corn syrup, molasses, honey, etc. WHen they separate them it allows them to hide them further down the list

Friday, April 20, 2007, 7:34 PM

5:03-I AGREE!! omg, this drives me crazy! I have only found two brands of bread at my grocery store that don't have HFCS in it and they don't consistently carry tem, so sometimes i have to hit a different store to get what i need. I refuse to buy "whole grain" "healthy" "high fiber" bread if it has crap like HFCS in it!!

Saturday, April 21, 2007, 1:26 AM

Not sure if this makes a difference, but as it can add up, this refers to 1 tsp = 5 grams.

Link

Saturday, April 21, 2007, 3:33 AM

3:33- I have three different packages of sugar at home, (roger's white, yellow, and a sugar in the raw) and the nutritional infor all says I tsp = 4 grams

Saturday, April 21, 2007, 8:43 PM

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