Daily Allowance of Sucrose

When Sarah first saw Dr. Poley in 2003, he suggested she restrict sucrose (sugar) as much as possible.  Since Sarah was the first patient Dr. Poley had recommended this diet to for treating Crohn’s disease, a guideline of a daily sucrose allowance had not been determined.  Through reading labels we decided that allowing 3 grams or below seemed reasonable.  It would drastically reduce the amount Sarah had been eating previously, but she did attempt to reduce the amount more than that.

In recent time, we have tallied up Sarah’s usual intake of sucrose added to processed food.  (This is only referring to the sucrose that has been added to foods, which can be identified in the Ingredient label and the Nutrition label.)  For the past 10 years and today, the amount of added sucrose that Sarah has adhered to and Dr. Poley highly recommends is between 5 and 10 grams as a daily allowance. 

I realize that this total may sound very rigid, but if you begin reading labels, you will find this guideline is very workable to follow.  It may take a little time to walk through the aisles at the grocery store checking out the products that are available, kind of like a treasure hunt.  If this diet helps your health, it truly may be a treasure to find the right foods.

This is an example to further explain:

For Breakfast—cereal (1 or 2 grams for a cup)

For lunch—sandwich bread (1 gram of sugar in each slice = 2 grams)

Snack—choices of pretzels, potato chips, corn chips, and a variety of crackers, (0 - 1 gram)

For Dinner—roll or bread (1 gram in one serving)

These would add up to 5 or 6 grams.

Sarah usually has 1 or 2 pieces of fruit a day, and maybe occasionally, 3.

I will include a chart below of the sucrose content in some fruits to give you an idea of which fruits contain the most sucrose. It’s from an article by J. Rumessen (Scand J Gastroenterology 1992;27:819)  Also below that, I'll add a recipe for oatmeal granola. Enjoy!

May you be blessed with good health!

Martha

Sucrose Amounts in Fruits:

(These amounts are per 100grams of edible portion of fruit)

Apple—1-5 grams

Cherry-- .02 grams

Banana—6-14

Grape—0.5 grams

Orange—4-7 grams

Pear—1-2 grams

Plum—1-5 grams

Prune—2 grams

Strawberry—1-2grams

Honey—2 grams

Carrot—4 grams

Melon—1.5 grams 

Recipe for Granola:

3 cup oats

1 cup coconut

1/2 tsp. salt

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/4 cup honey

1/4 cup butter, melted

2/3 cup raisins

Optional ingredients: chopped pecans, almonds, coconut

Combine all ingredients except raisins. Spread out on a greased cookie sheet.  Bake at 350 degrees for 25 to 30 min. stirring in pan after first 15 minutes.