Refined Sugar and Me Week 9 — Weight Weight Don’t Tell Me

I have cut out 75% of processed foods from my diet. I cook almost all of our meals. If I want snack, I make my own, this way I know exactly what I am eating. My only drinks are coffee, (my creamer has only 6 grams of sugar), water or water with fresh lemon juice, and smoothies made from scratch. I have lost 15lbs. To me, losing the weight is an added bonus, because what we are really achieving is better health. Aside from the decrease in sugar, which I am all for and have been working on for the past year, there are other factors that come into play with weight loss. There is a book out by Dr. Kelly Starrett called Deskbound. Standing up to a sitting world. The more we sit, the harder it is to lose weight. Did you know that sitting is worse than smoking. Check out the book at your local library. Interesting.

I can gain or lose ten pounds in a week. Once you hit 15 or 20, your friends will start noticing the difference.

Nora, good for you! I think as we get older, the key is to keep moving, if you can...

These Chobani Greek yogurt drinks from Jewel/MyMixx this past weekend... in addition to sugar, protein is something I try to keep track of. Most yogurts (and derivatives) are of course primarily made from milk, so I was curious how the Chobani Greek yogurt drink compared to milk, which (controversies aside) is considered a decent source of protein, with only natural sugar present. The stats (10oz Chobani as compared to 8oz fat free milk):

Calories: 200 vs 80 Total Fat: 5g vs 0g Saturated Fat: 3g vs 0g Cholesterol: 30mg vs 5mg Potassium: 430mg vs NS* Sodium: 120mg vs 105mg Total Carbohydrates: 26g vs 12g Dietary Fiber: 1g vs 0g Sugars: 22g vs 12g Protein: 14g vs 8g

Vitamin A: 4% vs 10% Vitamin C: 0% vs 0% Calcium: 30% vs 30% Iron: 0% vs 0% Vitamin D: NS* vs 30%

*NS = Not Specified

If I normalize the stats above to 8oz (Chobani * 0.8), the Chobani equalizes to 11.2g protein, and 17.6g sugar. As percentages, 40% more protein and 46.7% more sugar. Normalized the other way to 10oz (milk * 1.25), the milk equalizes to 10g protein, 15g sugar... 28.6% less protein and 31.8% less sugar. Either way, the percentages are pretty close, with the result being I'm getting more protein (and more sugar) with consumption of the Chobani drink. The real question is: how much of this is ADDED sugar?

Let's normalize based on protein (milk * 1.75): the result is 14g protein with 21g sugar... 1g less sugar than the Chobani drink. So, does that mean that the Chobani drink has 1g added sugar? NOPE. Such a conclusion would be flawed because I would be assuming that gram for gram (protein), I could equalize the sugars. Total sugar, YES... added sugar... NO. Greek yogurt has a relatively low concentration of natural sugar when compared to the additional protein is provides over milk. What I need to do, is compare this Chobani yogurt drink to a like product with no added sugar, like a 7oz serving of Danno Oikos Greek Vanilla yogurt drink (compared to Chobani):

Calories: 110 vs 200 Total Fat: 0g vs 5g Saturated Fat: 0g vs 3g Cholesterol: <5g vs 30mg Potassium: 380mg vs 430mg Sodium: 140mg vs 120mg Total Carbohydrates: 17g vs 26g Dietary Fiber: 4g vs 1g Sugars: 11g vs 22g Protein: 10g vs 14g

The serving sizes are different, so I'll normalize to that (Chobani * 0.7). The result is 15.4g sugar, and 9.8g protein which rounds to 10g which is what I'm assuming the manufacturers do anyway! :)

Protein is equal, sugar in Chobani is 40% higher at 15.4g. So, does that mean that Chobani has 4.4g of added sugar to Dannon Oikos's 11g? NOPE. This flavor of Chobani I'm using (Apple Veg) has apple and cucumber puree in it, which has natural sugar in it. Interestingly though, all of the Chobani Greek yogurt drinks that I've seen have total sugars at 22g, regardless of flavor. I think it's safe to assume that it's approximately 4g as compared to the Oikos.

So what does this all mean? If I wanted 10g protein from a dairy source, the total sugars from Chobani, Dannon, and milk would be 15.4g, 11g, 15g respectively, with Chobani having approximately 4g added sugar and the others as entirely natural sugars. No one is going to drink 7/10 of a bottle of Chobani, however, so figure (some quick math, Oikos * 1.43) equals 6g added sugar in the Chobani. Also, figure a small degree of inaccuracy in all of this due to the precision of the data presented on food labels (i.e. rounding).

What else does this mean? It means manufacturer's need to put ADDED sugar on their labels!! Won't that be nice when that happens?? I like math just as much as the next person, but sheesh! :-P

This may have been referenced before on here, but this is good reference on sugar:

www.heart.org/HEARTORG/HealthyLiving/HealthyEating/Nutrition/Sugar-101_UCM_306024_Article.jsp

I didn't factor for calories, fat, etc. in the above analysis, but that 6g of added sugar is the equivalent of 1.5 teaspoons of sugar added to that Chobani drink... hmmm.

The question was: How are you doing on your own healthier eating plan so far — and what have you found that helps you stay on track?

Well... I've been going thru my food lately... if I feel an item has too much added sugar, it's getting donated/given away... and I think a certain Greek yogurt drink is getting added to that list, lol. Out of sight, out of my tummy!! :))

In May, it will be three full years since I gave up caffeine and sugar.

I still get a certain amount of sugar in the few processed foods I eat, such as yogurt and salad dressing. However, I completely eliminated all desserts, candies, cookies, cakes, ice cream products, and miscellaneous snack foods, which were mostly junk.

The benefits: I feel better, my energy level is more consistent, and I have a much better digestive system. But, my overall permanent weight loss was only 7 pounds. The reasons are obvious: (1) I am over 60. At this point in my life, it would take an act of God to mobilize my metabolism. (2) I replaced those 4 calorie/gram simple sugars with foods that are higher in fat (which is 9 calories/gram), In the end, the weight lose was minimal.

In my case, the motivation was health; I've had chronic Epstein Barr for 10 years and wanted to try anything that would possibly help. According to my MD, a reduction in sugar and caffeine was a great place to start . In that respect, I'm glad I made these changes. However, if my motivation had been weight loss, I would have been really disappointed.

It will be interesting to see how you fare long-term. I am definitely rooting for you.