Fruit & Fructose

Fructose is also sometimes referred to as "fruit sugar" and is found naturally within fruit, giving fruit the sweet taste that people have grown to crave. Fructose can be found in grocery stores in the form of pure fruit sugar, and it is also artificially concentrated to make high-fructose corn syrup, an additive used in many processed foods.

Significance

• Fruit is sometimes referred to as "nature's candy," and for good reason. Natural sugar, fructose, within fruit creates the distinctive sweetness that can make an orange or a banana seem so much more appealing than a parsnip. Some vegetables may also contain high levels of fructose. Over time, humans eventually realized the linkage between naturally sweet, pleasant-tasting food and nutritional benefits.

Considerations

• The reason people generally do not worry about the fructose levels within a piece of fruit is that the nutritional value of fruit tends to balance out the sugar. Fruit is an important source of fiber, vitamins and minerals, and while it may be nature's candy, fruit generally contains far less sugar than manufactured confections.

Warning

• As long as fruit is consumed in its whole form, fructose levels are not much of a problem. However, when fruit is processed to make juice or juice beverages, the levels of fructose become much higher, and some of the nutritional benefit found within a whole piece of fruit is lost. Half a pint of orange juice can contain three times the amount of fructose found within one whole orange.

Identification

• When sold as "fruit sugar" at the grocery store, fructose has the appearance of finely-granulated white sugar. It is sometimes selected instead of processed white table sugar because it is about twice as sweet as cane or beet sugar, so less is needed in recipes. Fructose has the same amount of calories, however.

Speculation

• Some health professionals are becoming concerned about the use of fructose as a food additive in processed foods, where it is combined with corn syrup to form high-fructose corn syrup. Most companies that manufacture soft drinks use high-fructose corn syrup as a sweetener, and it can be found in many other items as well. Diets high in fructose may be linked to rising obesity levels and general poor health. Diets including such food and beverage choices provide far more fructose than one in which fructose is obtained largely from fruit.