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I am curious about something. I found a website that has a sugar calculator. It said that 4 grams of sugar = 1 tsp. We are supposed to limit our sugar to 5% of our RDI. For me, at 1600 calories per day, that would be 80 grams or 20 teaspoons of sugar a day. Obviously I'm not sprinkling sugar all over everything, but I do record the amount of sugar in the foods I eat (I do it in my food diary). Today I've had a Triple Zero yogurt, a low-sodium V8, and a hard-boiled egg which brings me to about 12 grams of sugar or 3 teaspoons. This is eye-opening for me. Forget adding sugar! Just the normal amount of sugar that appears in food will bring me to my 20 teaspoons.
I guess the big lesson here is to really read the packages and to avoid processed food as much as possible. I found this out when I tracked my sodium, too. I love cauliflower and enjoy it steamed with shredded cheese. A portion of cauliflower had 14% of my sodium for the day and I doubled it! Then I added cheese! Then I added garlic salt! No wonder my blood pressure was through the roof (I brought it down 20 points by changing my diet).
I am going to attack this sugar thing. It's insidious and causes me to have tremendous inflammation. I had rid myself of added sugar (like no sodas, obviously, and not putting sugar in my tea, etc.), but it's the natural sugars that occur as well that can be tough.
My yogurt does not have added "sugar" but it has Stevia and it has carbs (so... sugar). I may have to rethink this food item.
Diet Calendar Entries for 20 June 2018:
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1389 kcal
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Fat: 79.52g | Prot: 96.89g | Carb: 73.84g.
Breakfast: Hard-Boiled Egg, V8 Low Sodium Original 100% Vegetable Juice (5.5 oz), Good Earth Sweet and Spicy Tea. Lunch: Columbus Salumeria Italian Dry Salame, Cucumber, Cream Cheese, Dave's Killer Bread Thin-Sliced Good Seed Bread, Giant Eagle Cherry Tomatoes. Dinner: Kirkland Signature Hamburger, Kirkland Signature Shredded Cheddar Jack Cheese, Kirkland Signature Hamburger. Snacks/Other: Sunshine Cheez-It Original Snack Crackers (1 oz), Galbani String Cheese, Good Earth Sweet and Spicy Tea, Dannon Oikos Triple Zero - Strawberry. more...
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2423 kcal
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Activities & Exercise:
Watching TV/Computer - 2 hours, Cooking - 15 minutes, Walking (slow) - 2/mph - 20 minutes, Desk Work - 8 hours, Walking (moderate) - 3/mph - 35 minutes, Sleeping - 8 hours, Resting - 4 hours and 50 minutes. more...
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 Comments
teaspoon of sugar = 15 calories. 5% of 1600calories is 80 calories; so 5 teaspoons of sugar is 75 calories. 20 tsps. is equal to 300 calories or roughly 17% of your 1600 RDI. Make sense? I do not know who 'we' is in your statement above. Not sure how this actually matters--meaning, sugar is a simple carb, and it is easy to go from simple (sugar is the devil) to fruit(antioxidants, fiber, and other benefits) to forget fiber and micronutrients---because EVERY single carbohydrate is sugar when in fact it is not. So, is it critical to reduce sugar to this amount? Maybe. Probably not though. Does it remind you of the 80's and 90's when saturated fat was to be limited? Then it was shortened to just fat(hey we needed a sound bite), then it was "the G-o-m-m-i-t is lying to me and trying to kill me" by recommending less fat; problem is people cannot think beyond the last sound bite or fragmented quote when it comes to life and general guidelines versus science. So go back to the fat guidelines and replace the word fat with sugar and BOOM! You have the found the real magic pill. ...Good luck.
20 Jun 18 by member: Terrapin12
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Pam— there is a difference between a teaspoon of the white stuff which makes your blood sugar instantly spike and many other foods that have carbohydrates that do not have that instant response. Take potatoes for instance, their carbs (starches) are called resistant starches. That means that the body has to work harder to break them down into their sugar component so they don’t cause an instant spike and the sugar is released more slowly. Lots to be learned out there in the world of nutrition.
20 Jun 18 by member: Kenna Morton
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Thank you, Kenna. I think my confusion lies in the info in the media saying to limit sugar intake to a max of 25 teaspoons a day. I think that's next to impossible if you eat a well-rounded diet with a variety of fruits and grains. It must be that it's "added" sugar that's the problem, only the packages don't note what's natural to the food and what's added. It's like the "low fiber" breads that are made with some weird fiber that you wouldn't normally choose to eat. Once again it's stay away from processed foods! It's just that it's hard to do that when you work and don't have your own farm!
20 Jun 18 by member: SoCalPam
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Start by just limiting foods that have ADDED sugars. That would be the obvious things like sodas, flavored yogurts. When the sugar is listed separately in the nutritional info, that is your “added” sugars. Carbs by nature of what they are have sugar, starches or fiber. Read up a bit on glycemic index and glycemic load. Should help clear up some confusion and may give you some ideas. Good luck. Lots to be learned in the world of nutrition.
21 Jun 18 by member: Kenna Morton
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SoCalPam— I was a dialysis nurse for about 7 years. Occasionally while we were pulling fluids off of a pt, their BP would take a drop. We always had salt shakers at each chair side. We would sprinkle a little in the palm of the patients hand, they would lick I and within seconds their BP would go up 10-15 points. Gave a little BP support till we could replace a little fluid. Salt does the same to most of us normal people as well. I eat very little salt (not a Keto person) so when I eat anything that is high in sodium I immediately get flushed, often get a headache and my BP goes up. Imagine what that can do to someone who already has high blood pressure. It’s a killer. Literally
21 Jun 18 by member: Kenna Morton
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I think it is 80 calories of sugar not 80 grams of sugar. 5% of your rdi is calories not grams
21 Jun 18 by member: baskington
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Well if were talking refined sugar there's no use for it. I can't think of any reason to recommend someone get 80 grams of "sugar". Maybe carbs in general but we don't need to look for "sugar". We could even live healthy without eating fruit or even grains if we're getting are carbs from veggies.
If you're aiming for 5% of your diet being carbs, here's my advice.
In the app look for "reports" in the tool bar.
Then look in the right top corner, where there's a "target" sign. Click that.
Then you'll see there's a place to put your calories. Below that is places to put what percent of Carbs, Protein or fat. That will show you the grams. Most people don't count the fiber, when counting carbs. The app counts it but it also counts fiber next to the pie chart, to give you the general idea.
Sorry if I gave you info you already know. ☺ Just thought I'd share in case you didn't.
21 Jun 18 by member: Swakee
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Thank you, everyone. I'm learning more from y'all than I am from the articles I read!
22 Jun 18 by member: SoCalPam
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I looked it up to once, n I think I eat 3 times as much as my recommendation🙃
22 Jun 18 by member: rosio19
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But 80% + comes from natural fruit so I don’t worry about it
22 Jun 18 by member: rosio19
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The thing about keto is that sure, you burn more fat but you're eating more fat so most of the burned fat is the dietary fat. You still need a calorie deficit as with any other diet to have a net loss.
22 Jun 18 by member: -Diablo
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In other words, you burn a lot of fat but you're storing a lot of fat. You only burn more fat than you already have if you have a deficit. I do a lower fat(compared to keto) high carb diet so I burn less fat but I store less fat. The end result is the same given the same protein and calorie intake. Another theory is that since your insulin is lower you will store less fat on keto but there is this thing called acyl carrier protein that will store fat despite lower insulin.
22 Jun 18 by member: -Diablo
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