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About Fructose Malabsorption

Page history last edited by hedra 15 years, 10 months ago

 

About Fructose Malabsorption

Fructose malabsorption is the inability to effectively absorb fructose, a sugar found in fruits, vegetables, grains, and in many processed foods.

Unlike lactose, fructose isn't digested in the intestines - it is transported to the liver for digestion there. Lactose intolerance is when the body doesn't have enough enzyme production to break down all the lactose consumed, and some unpleasant symptoms result. Fructose malabsorption results in similar symptoms - gas, bloating, cramping, diarrhea - but for different reasons.

 

Note that this is not the same as Hereditary Fructose Intolerance, which is a genetic liver disease where the liver cannot break down the fructose that was absorbed. HFI requires strict avoidance of fructose, where Fructose malabsorption requires a somewhat more flexible but still limited diet.

 

To avoid symptoms, people with Fructose Malabsorption need to be aware of four main things in their diets:

  1. The amount of fructose in a meal, total
  2. The ratio of fructose to glucose in a meal
  3. The presence of polyols (sugar alcohols, like sorbitol, xylitol, mannitol, etc.)
  4. The presence of fructans (especially short-chain mono-, di-, and oligosaccharides, like Inulin, FOS, etc.)

 

The tricky part is figuring out the answers to those questions. Fructose levels in foods are not necessarily stable - they may be affected by the cooking method, the exact variety of a fruit or vegetable, the duration of storage, even the growing conditions that year. The polyol and fructan  content of a food is 'adjustable' in the form of genetic modification - rice has had wheat fructans added to increase cold tolerance, lettuce has had polyols enhanced to improve drought tolerance, etc. Even more traditionally bred or hybridized foods may have different glucose:fructose ratios, total fructose, total polyols, or total fructans compared to the older version.

 

Lacking a standard mechanism for measuring these things, we're left with trying to work it out on our own. A dietitian or nutritionist experienced with fructose malabsorption would be ideal - but they are few and far between, since fructose malabsorption has only recently been gaining attention in the medical world.

 

This wiki is a resource location for discussing and working through the issues with living with fructose malabsorption, as a patient, parent, or caregiver.

 

 

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