Once again I am going to ask if you are reading this and you are diabetic that you please ignore anything I say and speak to your doctor about your sugar intake and no one else. No one!
Ah, the sugar. Yesterday I noted a 45g allowance of sugar on the macros calculator I use to track what I eat, and I could find no formula or reason for it so today I’ve tried to look more at this number and who says what and why. Most people say something different with no apparent reasoning.
The NHS recommends no more than 30g of added sugars in the diet and offers no limit on naturally occurring ones.
American Heart Association advise that you should aim for below 25-30g (gender dependent) of added sugars but do not offer a cut off for naturally occurring sugars.
Jamie Oliver- everyone’s favourite petition waving celebrity chef- says 90g a day total sugars based on all the hoomphy research he has done for his latest crusade against obesity/campaign for sugar tax in the UK.
Livestrong also goes with the 30g/5% of daily calories or less from added sugar then advises on lower sugar wholefoods without putting a limit on them.
This information isn’t really helping and is leading me back to a favourite conclusion of my late grandfather’s- which is that they don’t bloody know, do they? All this kerfuffle and sugar scaring about getting fat and getting diabetes and all dying early doesn’t seem to have the back up of an actual number. After all if we limit free sugar shouldn’t we also limit sugar that’s locked up in other stuff too? It is still sugar. I much prefer to deal in absolutes when it comes to these things, especially if the advice comes in hand with someone trying to sell me a diet book or workout or whatever. Are we fat because we eat sugar? No. Are we fat because we eat too many calories? Yes. Do people eating too many calories eat a lot of sugar or does eating sugar make you eat more calories? This is the question. Does sugar count or is it a convenient calorie scapegoat? What I mostly mean is can’t I swap this banana for a kitkat? Pleeeeeease?????
I went to the forums to ask the opinons of my peers on the subject and to see if any other My Fitness Pal users knew what the sugar tracker value was based on. Where does this 45g come from? For reasons unknown, a moderator deleted the entire thread so I am still none the wiser. Nice. That made me cranky so I ate a banana.
The Day In summary:
The morning- usual breakfast shake plus a couple of black coffees and mid morning snack of boiled eggs and carrot sticks.
Lunch- green salad with home-made dressing, tomatoes, linseeds, the smallest avodaco in the world and a slice of sourdough bread.
Through the afternoon- a large banana and a small apple, then a chunk of cucumber and some 100% peanut butter as a pre work out filler as I was feeling slightly hungry. Weird point of the day occued when a 30 minute highish intensity yoga stream was exhausting to the point of my feeling shaky and pukey and needing a long sit down afterwards. Not a million miles away from when I over did some cycling training without enough breakfast a couple of years ago. A half hour exercise blast on getting home from work is standard issue for me, so shouldn’t have been a problem. Let’s see what tomorrow brings on this front.
Dinner- baked sweet potato, corn on the cob and pork fillet stirfried with onions and a red pepper. I missed being able to chuck in some hot sauce or soy or even just a tin of chopped tomatoes to this, for a dinner without sauce is a sad dinner indeed. I did however discover too late that morrisons savers passata is a no added sugar item, so that will be in the mix later in the week.
Once again I avoided the stealth sugars, I came in under my 1600 calorie goal and went over the 45g sugar goal but by less than yesterday. Macros were spot on 40% for carbs and slightly over with fat at 34% and protein just under at 26%. I would say I’ve not been too hungry but following hitting the yoga wall and putting away the plain pork I am now hankering for the generic supermarket brand fake magnums I know are in the freezer.
Stupid freezer.
Food. Boom. 