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Working out sugar

Hilary52 said:
Am I right in thinking that to work out how many spoons of sugar are in food is to take the total sugar content and divide by 4?


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Hi Hilary52. Forgive me, I've never heard of this method, quite frankly think someone's pulling your leg a little there. The best advice I can give you is to get yourself on a carbohydrate counting course such as DAFNE ASAP!!! This teaches you how to work out how many carbohydrates are in the amount of food your about to eat and how to match your insulin accordingly. Can't help you with the sugars I'm afraid.
Hope this helps a little?
 
This is from the Livestrong website :


HOW TO MEASURE SUGAR IN FOOD

Knowing the amount of sugar in foods can help you decide which ones are the healthiest for you. Americans consume an average of 142 lbs. of sugar per year, according to "U.S. World & News Report." This mainly come from processed foods and drinks, such as soft drinks, desserts, sauces, fast food and snacks. Lowering your sugar intake can help you lose weight and improve your blood sugar levels. You can estimate the number of teaspoons of sugar in a food by dividing the grams of sugar by four.

Step 1

Find the sugar content of a food on its food label. The amount of sugar indicated in this table corresponds to the grams of sugar from both natural and added sugar in one serving of the food.

Step 2

Adjust your sugar intake according to the serving size you eat. Measure your serving size and compare it with the one listed at the top of the food label. Use the measuring cups or measuring spoons to try to be as accurate as possible. For example, if the label indicates that 4 oz. of juice contains 15 g of sugar and you served yourself a 12 oz. glass, that would be 45 g of sugar.

Step 3

Divide the grams of sugar you eat by four. Because each teaspoon of sugar contain 4 g, this calculation will allow you to measure how many teaspoons of sugar are found in a serving of food. A 12 oz. glass of juice containing 45 g of sugar has just over 11 tsp. of sugar.




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Oh I see: that wouldn't be of any practical use as such, but is good for giving a visual idea of how much sugar something contains. What we need to know as diabetics is not how many teaspoons of sugar something contains, but how many grams of carbs (not sugars - you need to know total carbs, because carbs ARE sugars, once they enter the body). But yes, jaw dropping stuff like a glass of orange juice contains 11 teaspoons of sugar or whatever is a useful reminder as to why we shouldn't really EVER be drinking orange juice ;)

Haven't touched fruit juice since I was diagnosed - do miss it though :(


Type 2 on Metformin, diagnosed Jan 2013, ultra low carber, Hba1C at diagnosis 8% (11mmol), now between 5 and 6 mmol. 13kg lost so far :)
 
I might be wrong but it isn't really the sugar that you should worry about as this is a quick release energy and doesn't stay in the body for long. It's the carbohydrate content that you should look at.

My father in law is type 2 and still has his glass of orange or fruit juice every morning and as yet has not needed to go onto any medication. He was diagnosed approx 2 years ago. He does watch his carb intake though.

Just a thought.
 
Hi WilliamIrvine. I'm afraid I disagree ref fruit juice. The energy is released very fast and converted to glucose hence increasing your blood sugar quite a lot and it stays in the body until insulin reduces it or the body dumps it via urine. In general diabetics should avoid high-GI carbs (inc sugar) such as fruit juices unless they know they have adequate glucose control.
 
Most people want to know it the other way around, how many grams of sugar are there in a teaspoon. It's about 4.2 gm but can be as much as 8 gm depending on the granularity.

When you look at the nutritional info, it may say Carbohydrates 10 gm, of which sugar, 4 gm. That is similar to saying there is a teaspoon of sugar in this. However, the other 6gm of carbohydrate will usually be processed and turned into sugar. If it is white flour or white rice, it will turn into sugar quickly. If it is wholegrain bread or brown rice, it will turn into sugar more slowly. The direct sugar content is therefore only part of the story.

Some foodstuffs, like the sweetener Truvia for example, have very high carbohydrates contents. 100 gm of Truvia contains 99 gm carbohydrate. However, it is a type that you don't digest, so it doesn't affect your BG. Because you don't digest it, it also has zero cals.
 
WilliamIrvine said:
My father in law is type 2 and still has his glass of orange or fruit juice every morning and as yet has not needed to go onto any medication. He was diagnosed approx 2 years ago. He does watch his carb intake though.
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You can still enjoy these things. It all depends on portion control, what weight you are, how much exercise you do and what other carbs you eat. I like to eat two or three pieces of fruit per day, so I stay away from fruit juices. I also watch what kind of fruit I eat. There can be quite a difference between them.
 
AMBrennan said:
I never understood this obsession to measure everything in teaspoons/cubes of sugar, football fields, etc.
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You mean you have never even been tempted to calculate how many sugar lumps it would take to cover a soccer pitch?
 
Grams per ounce? Teaspoons of sugar? This all sounds very American, where there is an apparent inability to understand "abstract" measures such as grams; that's why their recipes are all in cups, not weights.

Forget cups, ounces, teaspoons, pinches, palmfuls, etc. and just stick with grams. You'll then find it easy to use one of the carb-counting books (Collins Gem has a very good one).


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