Nutrition

What percentage of a person's total energy intake should be from sugars? 

Guidelines: Limit added sugar intake to 5-10% of total energy

So the question is, what percentage of a person's total energy intake should be from sugars? So, the official kind of guidelines from the World Health Organization is between five to ten percent should come from what they call free sugars. So, what we think of, as really added sugar, and I think that's a really important distinction because I often hear people saying, oh, I'm trying to cut my fruits or I don't eat carrots because there's too much sugar in them. All the sugar recommendation guidelines refer to added sugars and not sure. That are naturally present in nutrient dense foods like fruits like whole vegetables. And even from dairy products because milk, sugar a technically is a sugar and so those don't really count in that 5 to 10% guideline, you know, I would say that, you know, thinking about it as a percentage of diet unless you're like someone who really tracks your Macros, it's also very hard to track most of my patients, think of it in terms of grams and so there are guidelines around that as well. So, for example, you know, and the US, the American Heart Association has come up with guidelines. It's around how many teaspoons per day or how many grams per day. So for women, a good guideline is no more than six teaspoons per day for added sugar which is about 24, 25 grams and for men, 9 teaspoons, a day or about thirty six grams of added sugar would kind of be a good limit and you know, and most packaged Foods added sugar is listed. And again, you don't really have to count sugar grams from Whole Foods like whole fruits or beets or carrots or vegetables that have some sugars or squashes and things like that. so, I hope that helps

The World Health Organization recommends that 5 to 10 percent of a person's total energy intake should be from added sugars. The American Heart Association recommends no more than 6 teaspoons (25 grams) for women and 9 teaspoons (36 grams) for men per day. Sugar naturally occurring in nutrient dense foods like whole fruits and vegetables do not need to be counted.

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The recommended percentage of a person's total energy intake from sugars, specifically added sugars, is between five to ten percent according to the World Health Organization. It's important to note that this guideline refers to added sugars and not the naturally occurring sugars found in nutrient-dense foods like fruits, vegetables, and dairy products.

While thinking about it as a percentage of the diet can be challenging unless you track your macros, there are also guidelines in terms of grams. For example, the American Heart Association suggests that women should aim for no more than six teaspoons or about 24-25 grams of added sugar per day, while men should limit their intake to nine teaspoons or about 36 grams.

Most packaged foods list the amount of added sugar, making it easier to track. However, it's not necessary to count the sugar grams from whole foods like fruits, vegetables, or dairy products.

Remember, the focus should be on limiting added sugars rather than avoiding naturally occurring sugars in nutrient-dense foods.

Surprising truth about intermittent fasting: No advantage found in humans, and backloading meals may be detrimental

So, do I recommend intermittent fasting? No, I do not, and I'll tell you why. So, what most people are referring to, when they think about intermittent, fasting is something called time restricted, eating where you're kind of choosing a very narrow window of hours and your day, maybe eight hours a day or 10 hours a day and you're limiting all of your food consumption to that narrow window of time. Sometimes, usually, people are skipping breakfast and they might eat from like 7:48 kind of thing and do an 8-hour eating window or maybe they'll do like In 27, that kind of thing. Time restricted eating has shown to be beneficial in a mouse and animal models, but when they actually tested it out in humans compared to just sort of other low calorie or other types of weight loss diets, there was actually no advantage to intermittent fasting compared to other types of diets. So in humans, the data haven't really born out that it is advantageous. The reason that I really don't like it beyond that is because when most people do intermittent, fasting, they're skipping breakfast. East and therefore, they're kind of back loading. All of their food intake, to kind of afternoon, and evening and metabolically were learning. That's actually the least favorable time metabolically to be eating. The majority of your food, our bodies operate on these sort of 24-hour, biological Cycles called circadian, rhythms and different metabolic processes or happening at different rates, at different times of the day and metabolically were much more efficient and kind of primed The morning in the daylight hours and sort of as the day progresses, we all become a little bit diabetic, a little bit more insulin resistant, and there's been some cool studies where they feed. Healthy people the same exact test meal at like 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. and 4 p.m. and 8 p.m. and our body's response metabolically gets less and less robust with each sort of, you know, later. And later time frame of that test meal triglycerides are high or low blood sugar is higher. And so what we're really seeing is that people who back load their intake to the later parts of the day are actually probably going to be more prone to metabolic disturbances like insulin resistance, diabetes type stuff, high cholesterol, high triglycerides. And so I much prefer front-loading intake to the early part of the day. So, if you want to do intermittent fasting, maybe think about skipping dinner instead of breakfast. Hope that answers your question.

Intermittent fasting, or time restricted eating, has not been proven to be more beneficial than other types of weight loss diets in humans. I do not recommend it because backloading food intake to the later part of the day can lead to metabolic disturbances like insulin resistance, diabetes and high cholesterol. Instead of skipping breakfast, try skipping dinner instead.

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No, I do not recommend intermittent fasting. While some people may refer to it as time-restricted eating, where you limit your food consumption to a narrow window of hours in the day, the data in humans have not shown any advantage of intermittent fasting compared to other types of diets.

Additionally, when most people practice intermittent fasting, they tend to skip breakfast and backload their food intake to the afternoon and evening. Metabolically, this is the least favorable time to consume the majority of your food. Our bodies operate on circadian rhythms, with different metabolic processes occurring at different rates throughout the day. As the day progresses, we become more insulin resistant and metabolically less efficient.

Studies have shown that our body's response to the same test meal becomes less robust as the day goes on, with higher triglycerides and blood sugar levels. Backloading food intake to later parts of the day may increase the risk of metabolic disturbances such as insulin resistance, diabetes, high cholesterol, and high triglycerides.

Instead, I recommend front-loading your food intake to the early part of the day. If you still want to practice intermittent fasting, consider skipping dinner rather than breakfast.

I hear there are a lot of different bacteria in your gut.  What about viruses?  Do they make up part of your gut microbiome as well?

Surprising Discovery: Over 140,000 Viral Species Found in Gut Microbiome

So the question is, I hear there are a lot of different bacteria in your gut. What about viruses? Do they make up part of your gut microbiome as well? Yeah, they actually do. The viral part of your gut microbiome is called your gut microviome. And the microviome is more diverse than we previously realized. There is a study published in the journal Cell in 2021 that identified over 140,000 different viral species in the human microbiome. And my guess is in the years to come, we'll probably find even more than that. So yeah, viruses are absolutely part of the gut microbiome. I hope that helps.

Yes, viruses are part of the gut microbiome and a study published in Cell in 2021 identified over 140,000 different species in the human microbiome.

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Yes, viruses do make up part of your gut microbiome. This viral component is known as the gut microviome. Recent research has revealed that the microviome is even more diverse than previously thought. A study published in the journal Cell in 2021 identified over 140,000 different viral species in the human microbiome, and it is likely that more will be discovered in the future. So, viruses are indeed an integral part of the gut microbiome.

What anti-inflammatory foods should we consume daily?

Discover the Key Anti-Inflammatory Food for Daily Consumption: Beans!

I love this question. What anti-inflammatory food? Should we consume daily? If I had to pick one food that consuming daily would probably have the biggest impact on your health. It's got to be beans. And I'll tell you something, when you study, the people who live the longest healthiest lives in the world, these are people who live in the so-called blue zones, these are people who have really high pot countries, where there's really high populations of people who live past age 100 and have super low rates of heart disease. Our diabetes and sort of the chronic diseases that plague Us in the Western World. These people have really different diets, they live, you know, some of them are in Japan and summer in Costa Rica and some are in California, and some are in Greece and some are in Italy. So they're not all eating the same diet, but there's one food that all their diets have in common and that is, they all eat beans, pretty much every day at least a half a cup and so beans are kind of this core foundational food to people who lead these lives. Long healthy lives and that's due partly due to their anti-inflammatory effects, mediated by the high fiber content. But also because beans are really terrific source of certain phytonutrients that are anti-inflammatory like certain antioxidants and so beans are kind of like a double whammy in terms of being anti-inflammatory. There's also been some studies looking at the longest living populations in Western countries including Sweden and Australia. And we also see that legumes beans and legumes Those are the one food that are specifically correlated with longevity in a dose-dependent way meaning that you can track the likelihood that someone is going to live longer with how much beans they eat on a day-to-day basis. So, bottom line, if you want to think about one food to eat daily, that could have a really big impact on anti-inflammation for me, that's beans.

Beans are the best anti-inflammatory food to consume daily as they contain high amounts of fiber and phytonutrients which have been linked to longevity in numerous studies.

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If I had to choose one anti-inflammatory food to consume daily, it would be beans. When studying the populations that live the longest and healthiest lives, known as the blue zones, one common factor in their diets is the regular consumption of beans. These populations, found in various countries like Japan, Costa Rica, Greece, and Italy, have low rates of chronic diseases like heart disease and diabetes. Beans play a crucial role in their diets, typically eaten daily in at least a half-cup serving.

Beans have anti-inflammatory effects due to their high fiber content and are rich in phytonutrients that possess anti-inflammatory properties, such as antioxidants. They offer a double whammy when it comes to combating inflammation. Studies conducted in Western countries, including Sweden and Australia, have also shown a correlation between legume consumption (including beans) and longevity. The more beans someone consumes on a daily basis, the higher the likelihood of living longer.

In summary, if you're looking for one food to incorporate into your daily diet for its anti-inflammatory benefits, beans are an excellent choice.

Is it true that exercise is the best method to lose weight and keep it off?

Exercise for Weight Loss? Diet is More Effective!

So the question is, is it true that exercise is the best method to lose weight and keep it off? The answer is no diet is a much more effective way to lose weight or as exercise seems much more effective and helping people maintain the losses that they've achieved through their diet. Exercise is actually pretty lousy in and of itself for weight loss. And part of that reason is metabolic adaptation to exercise. After you start doing exercise for quite some time, your body. He actually gets much more efficient at it, and the calorie deficit that it produces is surprisingly modest for the effort that you put in. So it's really really hard to exercise enough to induce substantial weight loss alone without changing your diet. So, there's a bazillion important reasons to exercise. Weight Maintenance Weight Management is one of them pretty low on the list. There are so, so, so many other benefits for exercise. So, I really encourage it, but just don't expect it to take off a whole bunch of weight. Hope that helps.

No, exercise alone is not the best way to lose weight. Diet is a more effective way to lose weight and exercise can help maintain any losses that have been achieved through dieting.

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The truth is, exercise alone is not the best method for losing weight and keeping it off. Diet plays a much more significant role in weight loss, while exercise is more effective in helping people maintain their weight loss. Exercise itself is not very efficient for weight loss due to metabolic adaptation. Over time, the body becomes more efficient at exercise, and the calorie deficit it creates is relatively modest compared to the effort exerted. It is challenging to exercise enough to achieve substantial weight loss without making changes to your diet.

However, there are numerous other important reasons to exercise besides weight management. Exercise offers a multitude of benefits, but significant weight loss should not be the primary expectation. It's important to have a balanced approach that includes both a healthy diet and regular exercise for overall well-being.

So, while exercise is valuable for many reasons, it is not the most effective method for weight loss.

Do collagen supplements actually improve the quality of tissues in the body?

Discover the Truth: Collagen Supplements Won't Improve Tissue Quality

So do collagen supplements, actually improve the quality of tissues in the body? I wish. But no, they don't. So here is why collagen is just a protein. It's a protein Source like many other protein sources and so when you eat it and it enters into the digestive tract, it will get broken down and digest it and broken apart into its individual. Amino acids, just like any other protein, you ate, whether it was from a bean or from, you know, some eggs or from some Dairy And once it's broken apart into these little individual building blocks, you know, it's indistinguishable from other forms of protein originally, and a lot of the collagen supplements, you're buying are already collagen peptides. In other words, there are ready pre broken apart. So, they're not even intact collagen at that point. So, just like any other protein building block, once you break down collagen into its component parts, your body just takes it up and uses all those individual building blocks for whatever it needs to use protein for. And so, when your body is actually, Creating collagen say like under the skin like as connective tissue it's making that from scratch. On the spot from the ingredients and vitamin C is actually involved in that process and it's taking all the component protein Parts, it needs as well as other things and making collagen on the spot where it needs it. It's not taking intact collagen from the digestive tract and kind of delivering it intact to different tissues throughout the body to support connective tissue. So unfortunately, collagen supplements, do not improve the quality of Tissues in the body. But there are nice high quality source of protein supplement just like other types of complete protein supplements. So there's certainly no harm and using them. Just don't expect them to get rid of these wrinkles or the sagginess. It's just not going to happen.

Collagen supplements are a protein source, but they do not improve the quality of tissues in the body. They are just like any other protein supplement, and can be used as part of a healthy diet, but don't expect them to get rid of wrinkles or sagginess.

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Do collagen supplements actually improve the quality of tissues in the body? Unfortunately, no. Collagen is just a protein, like many other protein sources. When you consume collagen, it gets broken down and digested into individual amino acids, just like any other protein you eat. Many collagen supplements are already in the form of collagen peptides, meaning they are already broken apart.

Once collagen is broken down into its component parts, your body uses those individual building blocks for various protein needs. When your body creates collagen, such as under the skin or as connective tissue, it synthesizes it from scratch using the necessary protein components and other factors like vitamin C. It doesn't take intact collagen from the digestive tract and deliver it to different tissues to support connective tissue.

So, unfortunately, collagen supplements do not improve the quality of tissues in the body. However, they can serve as a high-quality source of protein, similar to other complete protein supplements. While there is no harm in using collagen supplements, don't expect them to eliminate wrinkles or saggy skin. It simply won't happen.

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Tamara Duker Freuman is a New York-based dietitian who specializes in the dietary management of digestive and metabolic diseases. Affectionately known as the "Bloated Belly Whisperer," she has authored two books - one on gas, bloating, diarrhea, and constipation, and the other on bowel irregularity - as well as hundreds of articles for U.S. News & World Report. Tamara provides practical nutrition advice, helping patients find the healthiest diet they can comfortably tolerate and enjoy while resisting dogmatic, one-size-fits-all eating philosophies. She holds a master's degree in clinical nutrition from New York University and completed her training at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York.

Neither AnyQuestion nor its Experts provide medical advice, diagnosis or treatment or otherwise provide professional healthcare services.

Tamara Freuman, MS, RD, CDN