I recently got into the gym and am hoping to add weight and muscle as in fairly skinny. I’ve made changes to Mr diet to accommodate larger intakes of calories and protein etc, and recently I was adding up totals for major points like sugar.
However, I ran into something concerning and unclear. A quick Google result about how much sugar is too much for one day suggests 36 grams for a male adult. I appear to be in the range of 40 with all the yoghurt, blueberries, protein powder etc.
At thr ssme time, on the nutrition info parts of packaging, I see a gram of sugar being equated to 1%. For example, my granola says it has 27g sugar per serving and it says this is 27% daily value.
So is it 100g sugar a day or 36? Surely it must be the latter but what’s going on with the former?
The 36 gram recommendation is for added sugar. The naturally occurring sugars in whole fruit, plain dairy, etc. don’t count. It’s not that they’re chemically different, just that consumption of those foods has other benefits (vitamins/minerals, fibre, protein), they’re difficult to “overeat”, and intake of those foods is not associated with poor health outcomes.
ETA: Also to note the 36g number comes from the American Heart Association iirc. WHO recommends added sugar 5-10% of calories which is like 25-50 g for the average person but is nicer than a hard number because if someone e.g. was consuming more due to activity, there is a bit more leeway (more realistic)
Which country are you from? Some places label added sugar as a subset of total sugar, and it would be ideal to focus on the added sugar piece if that info is available. But in Canada for example, they only label total sugar and they set the target for %DV at 100g - not necessarily as a goal intake - the rationale being 100g is a reasonable total sugar intake that would be consistent with a basic healthy eating pattern which includes fruit, dairy, vegetables, and may also include small amounts of sugar added while cooking at home or enjoyment of sweetened foods in moderation. Canada also introduced label reading guidance that says “5%DV or less is a little, 15%DV or more is a lot” and it was pointed out that with the 100g target, foods that are >15%DV for total sugar are very likely to be high in added sugar and these foods should be eaten less often.
Ima let you know something about muscles and sugar…
Ita perfectly fine to consume sugar post workout.. and during a workout.. especially if you are trying to grow..
Its not really ideal for most other times of the day.
But as long as you aren’t going crazy you won’t have issues or get too fat