http://voluntocracy.org/Fructose
	Excess Fructose Content of Foods

Fructose and glucose are simultaneously absorbed in equal amounts by the intestines. Excess fructose is absorbed by a different mechanism. In individuals with fructose malabsorption, excess fructose remains in the intestines where fermentation causes intestinal distress.

Glucose requires insulin to be absorbed from the bloodstream, while fructose does not. There has been vigorous debate as to whether individuals with Diabetes mellitus (a metabolic disease characterized by high blood sugar) should consume or avoid fructose.

In any case, it would be interesting to have a chart showing the spectrum of fructose-heavy to glucose-heavy foods.

Source Data

The USDA National Nutrient Database Standard Release 24 (Sept. 2011) gives nutrient values for 7906 foods; but only 1207 of them have fructose and glucose values.

This database was used to create a table of the 1207 foods having fructose and glucose values (reproduced below). The foods are listed in order of decreasing amount of excess fructose.

Column 1: Fr-Gl

is the excess fructose (fructose minus glucose) in a 100 g sample of the food. Negative numbers (in the bottom half of the table) indicate excess glucose.

Column 2: Total Sugars

is the total weight of sugars in a 100 g sample of the food. Column 2 values include other sugars, such as lactose.

Column 3: Description

is a text description the food.

The database doesn't give data for High Fructose Corn Syrup. Used mostly in soft drinks, HFCS 55 is composed of approximately 55% fructose and 42% glucose. This would give it a 13% excess of fructose, comparable to the 15% and 20% fructose excesses of lemonade powders near the top of the chart.

Also not covered is Inulin, a polysaccharide of fructose. Composed of long chains of fructose molecules, inulin is nearly pure fructose, and should be vigorously avoided by those with fructose malabsorption.

Common sense should be used when applying fructose excess values to food choices. Even though paprika has a fructose excess of 4 g (per 100 g), foods containing this ingredient will contain only small amounts; so there is no need to avoid it.

Technical Details

The full version of SR23 was converted to MySQL using the mdbtools program with help from Martin Jaffer and from Niall Donegan's: Converting Microsoft Access MDB Into CSV Or MySQL In Linux.

The SQL query used to create this table follows. Nutr_No=211 is fructose; Nutr_No=212 is glucose; and Nutr_No=269 is total sugars.

SELECT round((frus.Nutr_Val - glus.Nutr_Val), 2)
         "FR-GL",
       round((sugar.Nutr_Val), 2) "SUGAR",
       FOOD_DES.Long_Desc "Description"
FROM NUT_DATA glus
     JOIN NUT_DATA frus ON glus.NDB_No=frus.NDB_No
     JOIN NUT_DATA sugar ON glus.NDB_No=sugar.NDB_No
     JOIN FOOD_DES ON glus.NDB_No=FOOD_DES.NDB_No
WHERE glus.Nutr_No=211 and frus.Nutr_No=212
  AND sugar.Nutr_No=269
GROUP BY glus.NDB_No
ORDER BY (frus.Nutr_Val - glus.Nutr_Val) DESC,
         sugar.Nutr_Val;