Sugar Consumption

straas

Granted not the best place to post this (the cake stop..)

I've been trying to curtail my sugar intake for a while now - to varying success. It's easy to avoid the obvious sugars, but the less obvious are much more difficult, especially when you get into the realms of lactose in milk (a sugar..)

Does anyone else actively cut sugar out? How do you find it on longer rides if you've previously been used to gels and carb drinks?

twist83

Why would you cut ALL sugar out? All in moderation surely? Limiting refined sugars etc fair enough.

However when you need quick energy and exerting hard. A gel or a Carb drink is surely not a bad thing?

straas

I find it much easier to be binary about things - I find moderation harder than abstinence.

I did a sportive a few years back with feed stations, everything was basically sugar and I felt awful by the end of it.

trivial_poursuivant

all carbs are sugars if you want to delve deep enough into it, so getting hung up on milk or fruit is pushing it too far. Fine to remove refined sugars in drinks and processed foods but natural stuff has more health benefits from the nutrients they provide. Moderation is always going to be the key goal. Complex carbs will do you better and keep you sated for longer.

mrfpb

Your talking about a major food group, not a niche micro nutrient. Total abstinence will be impossible, and may lead to health complications if you try it for more thsn a few days.

mr_goo

I believe others on here are correct. Cutting out or reducing (better idea) refined sugar is a good idea. But cutting out fructose (natural sugar) is daft. A banana for instance is a great form of slow release energy and potassium which contains fructose.
I've attempted the complete removal of refined sugar from my diet before. Even that is nigh impossible and left me feeling quite weak and shaky after a couple of weeks, especially if you're exercising too. So long as you are active I don't see a problem with a moderate intake of refined sugar.

straas

I mentioned lactose because of the confusion of sugar vs refined sugar. I'm still eating carbs, but avoiding any with added sugar - some white breads etc.

I'm trying to keep to under 28g of daily sugar,