Fructose and Fruit!

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Avoiding  sugars, including fructose, is one of my four dietary objectives along with avoiding grains, legumes and industrial veg/seed oils.Since I limit/avoid processed foods HFCS was not really an issue so I was self deluded in thinking avoiding fructose would be easy.

Wrong. Fructose is(obviously) found in fruit, albeit not in the levels one would find in HFCS(high fructose corn syrup) but it is there and, depending upon the type of fruit, potentially in high(er) amounts.I did some research and found this list of high fructose fruit.

"The following fruits are highest in fructose (per typical serving size)*. They contain more than 4 grams of fructose per serving.

• apple
• banana
• cherries (1 Cup)
• grapes (1 Cup)
• mango
• melon (2 wedges)
• orange
• pear
• pineapple (2 rings)
• watermelon (1 large slice)"

Well color me stupid.Needless to say I have been limiting my fruit intake but eating all the wrong ones. Bananas, apples and oranges were high on my list of late and mangos,cantalopes pineapples and watermelon my "eat lots when on sale" favs.

Uh oh!

The good news is there are fruit choices that are lower in fructose and some of my favs....including berries,grapefruit,plums and(who knew?) peaches.

Fructose is really flying under the radar as a health(weight gain) concern because we do link it to fruit which, we have been told, is "good for us". The reality is most people eat way too much sugar including fructose which has a special impact on liver function, weight gain and obesity.

Here is a pretty good primer on Fructose.
http://figureathlete.t-nation.com/article/diet_and_nutrition/the_low_fructose_diet

My plan going forward is to limit fructose and just make smarter choices in regards to fresh fruit consumption and when I opt eat it. I tend to consume more fruit in the Spring and Summer due to(local) availability and to facilitate pre and post road cycling training and competition. It is quick, portable and simple. I have been doing some research on dietary starches and now feel that limited amounts of tubers(specifically sweet potato) may be a better option for pre and post exercise nutrition. More on starches on another post for another day but it's safe to say I will incorporate less fruit but more sweet potato into my sport nutrition.

Post Script - found this video on You Tube.





Comments

Cari said…
i was pretty surprised too when i found out how high certain fruits are in fructose. interestingly, a lot of the fruits you listed give me headaches when i eat them, the same headache i get when i have a sugary treat, like a hard candy. i've had to stop having grapes and apples completely because of the headaches and can only drink dry white wine because it's lower in fructose. who would think that even fruit can cause problems?!
4:33 AM
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