Stupid question about sugar

#1

Bought a bag of frozen mixed veggies and kale. Went to use them and veggies has 3grams of sugar and kale has 1. Can I still eat this stuff. Frozen veggies consists of red, yellow and green peppers with onion. That is per serving for both -Thanks

#2

Kale is great. You can eat peppers and onion in moderation (they’re very healthy) but you have to count them with your other carbs and try to keep it under 20g/day. They do add up quickly.

(Brian) #4

Not enough carbs there to be worthy of worry, at least not in my opinion. Enjoy!

#5

Incidental sugar in real food is fine as long as you count it. I’d avoid things like honey and table sugar, but technically you can even have those as long as you keep your carbs under 20. That’s the only real rule, and there is even some room to bend that depending on circumstances, but that’s an advanced topic.you don’t need to worry about yet.

#6

So do I count sugar as carbs?

#7

Of course. The only thing you don’t have to count is fiber.

(Dan) #8

Note that on the nutrition labels, sugars are a subset of total carbs. The sugar is already included in the total carb number.

(Eli) #9

Vegetables have natural sugars in them just like fruit, which is reflected on the label and goes towards the sugar and carb count even though they’re natural. Just remember that sugars are a subset of carbs, so the carb amount has already taken the sugar into account.

(You've tried everything else; why not try bacon?) #10

There are experts who feel that the fiber in whole foods helps keep the absorption of the sugar to a rate that the liver can safely handle. If it’s sugar that occurs naturally in the food, eat it, count it, and move on. But do not juice the food (that destroys the fiber, so you get all the sugar at once—not good), and avoid added sugar like the plague.