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How much sugar do you eat in a day?
I am hypoglycemic and am really making an effort to limit my sugar. So I tracked on what I thought was a relatively good day on MFP, and I still ate over 80 grams of sugar!!! Yikes--that seems like a lot!
Here is what I ate:
Breakfast - Nonfat Greek yogurt w/ 1/2 cup Ezekiel cereal, 1 T honey (I know that is one source) and a banana
Snack - Zone Simply Perfect protein bar (again, I should cut that out, but I was on the run and just grabbed it at the gas station because I was hungry)
Lunch - Salad with grilled chicken, lowfat Feta, carrots and 2 T organic balsamic vinegar (2 g sugar per serving)
Snack - Dymatize protein shake w/ Unsweetened Vanilla Almond Milk
Dinner - Cuban pork tenderloin (recipe included pickles, swiss cheese, Dijon mustard, cilantro and Cajun seasoning), brown rice, black beans with chiles and seasonings
For those who try to watch sugar, how much do you eat on a normal day? Do you see anywhere that I could cut some out? I know MFP includes the bananas and veggies in sugar count--should I not focus on those and only count added sugar? Help!
Thanks!
Re: How much sugar do you eat in a day?
I plan to really watch my sugar intake after I have my baby b/c I know its a huge issue of mine in general, well, I should start now and I may have to after my gestational diabetes test next month.
Anyways...I have read that nothing you eat should be over 10g of sugar, so a good rule of thumb would be to start w/ anything w/ a nutrition label so you can monitor that.
Your main meals look fine but the snacks could probably use some tweaking through the week. Maybe sub in more wholesome snacks like hummus and veggies, hard boiled eggs, string cheese, nuts.
PR's
5k 10/15/11 30:34 9:51 pace
8k 9/24/11 55:20 11:08 pace
10k 11/24/11 11:24 pace
10 mile 4/25/10 2:03:54
I eat little or no added sugars most days (when I do, it's in the form of very dark chocolate). I purposefully avoid them. Otherwise I eat whole food sources of carb like fruit and veggies and generally, most of my calories come from fat.
There are some easy swaps in the menu you posted. Obviously, skip the honey or use less. Use a full fat yogurt rather than sugar to mellow the tartness. Or, mix the banana in for sweet.
If you're stuck with gas station fare, dry roasted nuts/seeds are usually available.
It doesn't seem like you have much fat, but lots of protein. Excess protein could affect your blood sugar so it might be good to swap some of the protein for fat.
If you don't already, you could try tracking your blood sugar after a variety of meals. (before meal as a baseline, then 1hr post, 2hr, 3hr). That way you can pinpoint problematic items rather than guessing. For example, maybe both rice and beans at dinner would be too much carb at once so you could swap in a portion of veggies which have more fiber but less starch.
Walmart has a cheap glucometer (Relion brand) and this site has lots of info on normalizing blood sugar, including healthy targets to shoot for:
http://www.bloodsugar101.com/
I can't eat sugar much either due to health issues and I have been watching it for a year. Sugar lurks in so many regular foods (like bread, crackers, etc...) that you would not think contains sugar. I really have cut so many things out of my diet.
For breadfast I like Joe's O's -Trader Joe's Cheerios only have 1 gm per serving. For a sweet snack I like So Delicious Coconut Fudge bars - they are made with coconut milk and agave (can you have agave??). I avoid yogurt - most have tons of sugar. I do eat fruit and veggies for snacks. I also like Brown Rice Cakes with organic peanutbutter for a snack. Hummus and carrots or whole grain pretzels. I avoid white rice. I bake whole grain banana muffins and use some agave or stevia in them - these are great for snacks or breakfast.
I did also look into how much sugar people should have a day and there is no daily recommended amount because it is not needed to sustain the body. They do recommend that non diabetic people keep their sugar intake below 40 grams per day. THey mean 40gms of "added" sugar - not the natural sugars contained in the food (like fruit). If your body has issues with sugar, you may want to aim even lower. I know it's hard...sugar is in everything. My best advice - avoid packaged foods.
Thanks ladies! This is very helpful.
Mr+Ms, I had no idea that full-fat Greek yogurt is more mellow. Definitely looking forward to trying that. I am not a huge fan of the tartness.