Discussion Board

I've always been mindful of the sugar issue, avoiding it as much as possible, which is easy to do if you follow McDougall properly. High-fructose corn syrup isn't a problem for me as I don't use packaged or processed foods or drink sodas. But I have been using some honey or maple syrup occasionally on my oatmeal, and have heard that blackstrap molasses has some positive health properties and have been using it my home made Anadama bread.

But now that fructose is in the news, and the terrible things it does to our health, I'd like to hear some opinions on how you sweeten some foods like oatmeal, or if you do at all.

I do use fresh fruit for most of my sweetening and even though it has fructose, it's in small amounts and has the fiber and nutrients.

I'm thinking of eliminating all forms of sugar except for fresh fruit from now on. Not that I ate much of it, but it sounds like any amount of fructose or sucrose is BAD. I don't need to lose any more weight, so this is a general healthy-eating question.

Any thoughts out there? Have you given up all sugars?

Since it is something that really isn't tracked in terms of RDA it's hard to say just how much I eat. I hear approximately 40g is the level of sugar intake daily. After adding 1 TBSP of honey to my oatmeal I have used up near half (16g) of my 40g. Just today when I bought oatmeal I bought some cinnamon to put in it tomorrow. If it is still missing that 'sweet' then I might add a small box of raisins at 10g of sugar. I have been a bit more mindful recently of sugars and sodium, working to keep those in line.

I prefer my oatmeal and most foods straight without any additions... though I use honey from our bees once in a while and maple syrup for pancakes on occasion...

I use a chopped date for my oatmeal.

The American heart association new guideline are that the "safe" daily maximum consumption of refined sugars products is 100 calories (25 grams) for women and 150 calories (37 grams) for men. Why the difference, I don't know.

http://www.heart.org/HEARTORG/GettingHealthy/NutritionCenter/HealthyDietGoals/Sugars-and-Carbohydrates_UCM_303296_Article.jsp#.T3-kGdVPJ5c

This was also in the the CBS Dr. Sanjay Gupta http://youtu.be/B56Gpf1f5_A

Also read the "Dietary Sugars Intake and Cardiovascular Health" http://circ.ahajournals.org/content/120/11/1011.full.pdf

Considering that most on SAD consume 500-700 or more sugar calories per day, the above seems fairly reasonable.

j

I used to just cut up bananas and put them into my oatmeal when it was finished cooking, but I realized that cooking the bananas with the oatmeal breaks them down and caramelizes their sugars, which makes the oatmeal super sweet (in a banana-ey way). If you don't like bananas all that much I'm sure this would work with mostly any fruit.

So, honey is pure fructose and supposed to be NOT good to consume. I think dates are super high in sugar but regular fresh fruits not as much. I think I will cut out honey altogether. It seems that whatever sweetener I eat, it just makes me want more, like any sugar addiction.

The evils of all sugar, now called a toxin, is explained here:

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2010/01/02/highfructose-corn-syrup-alters-human-metabolism.aspx

And here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dBnniua6-oM&ob=av3e

For super optimal health, it looks like we not only follow McDougall but stay away from ALL sugars ALL the time. I kind of knew this, but these stories on sugar are really getting my attention!

I'm not worrying too much about sugar at this point - early days! - but haven't had any other than in fruit since I started the program (two weeks now). Thought I would miss it more.

Maple syrup is probably my favourite sweetener. A while ago, I started putting it in a small dish on the side instead of pouring it all over pancakes and found I used considerably less, but still got the taste.

I think I could live with a limit of 100 calories of sugar per day. Although the Heart Association isn't exactly known for the best dietary guidelines, so I suppose one should aim for less than that.

Cinnamon works for me.

I pretty much ignore ANYTHING from the Mercola, yes he does have some good information, but a LOT of it is bad. He's pretty much just trying to sell supplements and stuff.

The video however does seem to be credible. As I was watching it, I kept thinking this guy is full of it, because fructose is "fruit sugar", and I wasn't going to but into the concept that fruit is unhealthy. But then he added the line, something like "unless fructose is consumed in it's natural packaging, the whole fruit". I wish there had been more explanation of why this deadly poisonous stuff called fructose, is suddenly ok to consume once it's in the apple or banana. He seemed to indicate it had to do with the fiber, in which case it would seem to me that consuming some maple syrup with your oatmeal, with the added fiber of flaxseed meal, should lessen the bad side effects of the fructose in maple syrup. Or maybe I'm just trying to make a logical argument to keep eating maple syrup...

This is what Dr. McDougall says about sugar:
http://www.drmcdougall.com/med_hot_sugar.html

When I make steel cut oats, I include 1/4 cup blueberries and a tsp. of cinnamon while cooking. That makes it sweet enough for me. Fruit is the only sugar I eat. I make sure to brush and floss my teeth right away after eating fruit. I'm a former dental assistant and I'm thoroughly brainwashed.

I did do a search on this site for the sugar topic, but I guess I didn't dig deep enough. If I had found this right away, I wouldn't have needed much else!
http://www.drmcdougall.com/misc/2010nl/jun/sugar.htm

Once again, thank you Dr. McDougall.

I don't really pay much attention to other media docs out there (except for Dr. Mirkin---he's good) but Mercola had the Lustig talk boiled down to a readable form on his site. Other than that, I pay no attention to him and others like him.

The whole video does explain all that and does make sense. Although I'm not taking it 100% to heart, he does make one think about the sugar/fructose topic in a new way and I find it's always good to hear another view point, then take away what I can from it. Lustig is rabid about fructose that isn't consumed along with the whole fruit. And that part we should all know anyway, following McDougall!