Sugar - is natural sugar best avoided too?

NIMAN

Couple of questions:

1, I like a glass of OJ in the morning, and often look at the sugar content on the label and wonder if I should be worrying about the high figure? Especially as my kids are fond of it too (I would water their's down). Now I appreciate it likely all natural sugar rather than added, but can it be as bad for you as processed sugar?

2, looking at the label on my semi skimmed milk, I noticed it had nearly 10g of sugar per 200ml. Is this all natural or do they add sugar?

Faith

It feels like this thread would be better suited to Nutrition & Diet. Would you like me to move it there?

NIMAN

Please do

Faith

Done

Tiddlypeeps

NIMAN wrote: »

Couple of questions:

1, I like a glass of OJ in the morning, and often look at the sugar content on the label and wonder if I should be worrying about the high figure? Especially as my kids are fond of it too (I would water their's down). Now I appreciate it likely all natural sugar rather than added, but can it be as bad for you as processed sugar?

2, looking at the label on my semi skimmed milk, I noticed it had nearly 10g of sugar per 200ml. Is this all natural or do they add sugar?

Most fruit juices are as bad for you as soda from a sugar perspective. There is nothing wrong with a glass of orange juice as long as sugar intake for the rest of the day aren't also quite high. Something like 20g to 40g of sugar (depending on who you ask) per day is what you should be aiming to stay under (probably less for kids).

Weather it comes from a natural source or not is irrelevant, sugar is sugar.

Eating whole fruits is ideal. It takes a number of oranges you would never be able to eat in one sitting to make a glass of juice, and you are missing out on a lot of the good stuff too by juicing, like fiber.

Mellor

The sugar you buy in 1kg bags from the supermarket is also natural sugar. As is the sugar used in soft drinks and sweets.
Sugar beets, sugar cane, corn syrup, molasses etc. All natural sources.

rubadub

NIMAN wrote: »

2, looking at the label on my semi skimmed milk, I noticed it had nearly 10g of sugar per 200ml. Is this all natural or do they add sugar?

I have never seen added sugar in skim milk, unless it is obviously a milk shake thing.

Skim milk powder is about 50% sugar. Just check the ingredients lists if you are unsure. Even 100% milk can have ingredients lists on it. Skim milk often has added milk proteins to make it less watery.

As you take out the fat all the other ingredients will naturally rise in % a little. Skim milk is about the same sugar content as full sugar lilt or cidona, but its not added sugar.

Mellor

Regular full fat milk is 5% sugar.
So that's 10g per 200ml too

maximum12

Mellor wrote: »

Regular full fat milk is 5% sugar.
So that's 10g per 200ml too

Dunnes own brand milk:

Whole milk: 9.4g per 200ml
Skimmed Milk: 10g per 200ml

Ingredients on both cartons say: Cow's milk (100%)

Mellor

maximum12 wrote: »

Dunnes own brand milk:

Whole milk: 9.4g per 200ml
Skimmed Milk: 10g per 200ml

Ingredients on both cartons say: Cow's milk (100%)

I think i'm missing your point.
That looks completely normal.

But it's not added sugar, it's natural sugar in the milk (lactose). Both contain only milk.

NiallBoo

1. Sugar is sugar, your body can't tell whether It's there to begin with or added in later. There will be some difference between how quickly sucrose, fructose and lactose are absorbed. Juice vs minerals will have some extra benefits from nutrients, though not as good as just eating the fruit. If you're eating cereals, you might be a bit surprised by the sugar content.

2. Though as pointed out, your milk is just milk, it's pretty normal for low-fat products to be high in sugar to make up for the taste. They may even have higher calories than the normal product.

NIMAN

So people say sugar is sugar, and yet we are encouraged to drink loads of milk.

I do, and my kids do too. So if we are drinking a lot, could we be getting too much sugar?

Is it literally a case of 'everything in moderation', even so called healthy foods?

Mellor

NIMAN wrote: »

So people say sugar is sugar, and yet we are encouraged to drink loads of milk.

I do, and my kids do too. So if we are drinking a lot, could we be getting too much sugar?

Is it literally a case of 'everything in moderation', even so called healthy foods?

Who is encouraging you to drink loads of milk though?


Milk is very calorie dense. It's a decent mix of protein, fats and carbs. When somebody wants to put on extra weight or keep their weight up, drinking extra milk in a good way to get in "invisible calories". It's also a good way for "growing children" to meet their energy needs (especially fussy eaters).
But for people who are watching their weight. Including kids who are a little heavy (and therefore getting enough energy anyway). Then drinking lots of milk is probably not a great approach.

Peregrinus

NIMAN wrote: »

So people say sugar is sugar, and yet we are encouraged to drink loads of milk.

Who is encouraging you to drink loads of milk?

NIMAN wrote: »

I do, and my kids do too. So if we are drinking a lot, could we be getting too much sugar?

Well, you're getting more sugar than if you drank water. Whether you're getting "too much" sugar depends on how much milk you think "loads" is, and on how much sugar you are getting from other sources in your diet.

NIMAN wrote: »

Is it literally a case of 'everything in moderation', even so called healthy foods?

Very much so, yes. If your particular concern is about energy intake/weight control, then orange juice and semi-skimmed milk deliver about the same calorie count for a given quantity. But the orange juice delivers those calories nearly exclusively in the form of sugar, while the milk delivers them in a blend of sugar and fat. The milk does also deliver a useful amount of calcium, which the orange juice does not.

If you want to reduce your calorie intake you can't do it by switching from orange juice to milk or vice versa; you need to switch to water, tea or coffee instead.

maximum12

One of the tricks of the food industry is to market sugary products as naturally sweetened. I wouldn't worry about the 5% sugar in milk assuming you're not drinking pints of it. There's more sugar hidden in lots of everyday stuff that people assume is low in sugar.

e.g. Rice Krispies and Corn Flakes are 10% sugar but most people assume these are not sweet cereals. When I was a kid we'd sprinkle extra sugar on corn flakes. The "healthy" cereal Special K is 12% and Bran Flakes is a whopping 17% sugar.

Apart from Weetabix or porridge, they're mostly very high.

Zillah

As said, the whole "natural sugar" thing is bunkum. Sugar in a natural form, such as a piece of fruit, isn't too bad because fruit is full of fibre, so it is absorbed much more slowly and helps avoid over eating.

There's nothing natural about juice. You squeeze all the sugar out, drink that and dump the rest.

Lactose is the major sugar in milk, and is processed much more slowly than other sugars. I feel like a broken record but it keeps coming up. Milk also has fat and protein so is a good, well-rounded source of nutrition.

Smoked Tuna

Zillah wrote: »

As said, the whole "natural sugar" thing is bunkum. Sugar in a natural form, such as a piece of fruit, isn't too bad because fruit is full of fibre, so it is absorbed much more slowly and helps avoid over eating.

There's nothing natural about juice. You squeeze all the sugar out, drink that and dump the rest.

Lactose is the major sugar in milk, and is processed much more slowly than other sugars. I feel like a broken record but it keeps coming up. Milk also has fat and protein so is a good, well-rounded source of nutrition.

So if your aiming to minimise your sugar intake should you include milk in the calculations

Zillah

No. Well, strictly speaking yes; but no.

If you're trying to minimise the bad effects of sugar then milk is fine. Lactose is processed slowly unlike glucose, and is not a burden on the liver unlike fructose, so it's fine.

Glucose is also fine in reasonable amounts, especially if you've an active lifestyle. And fructose is mostly fine if it comes with the fibre it normally does in nature: eat your fruit, don't juice it. Unfortunately it is complicated, which makes it much harder to form simple rules.

Smoked Tuna

Zillah wrote: »

No. Well, strictly speaking yes; but no.

If you're trying to minimise the bad effects of sugar then milk is fine. Lactose is processed slowly unlike glucose, and is not a burden on the liver unlike fructose, so it's fine.

Glucose is also fine in reasonable amounts, especially if you've an active lifestyle. And fructose is mostly fine if it comes with the fibre it normally does in nature: eat your fruit, don't juice it. Unfortunately it is complicated, which makes it much harder to form simple rules.

Okay so based on your input I am adding an extra column in my spreadsheet for sugar from milk (porridge and tea/coffee) so its seperate from the sugar from other stuff.

Amirani

When you say "natural sugar", I assume you mean non-added sugar.

Generally best avoiding juices if you want to lower your sugar intake. However, if you enjoy them then have them in moderation, it's never worth completely excluding things you enjoy (maybe certain narcotics excepted). Milk as well I'd only drink in moderation, though it has better nutritional benefits than juices. Most of your drinking should be water if possible, and stuff like coffee/tea too is great.

Whole fruits are good because they're far more fibrous and there's far less sugar per serving than in juices. Again, I wouldn't be having 10 portions a day, but you can definitely be more liberal with these.