Fructose
Fructose (from Latin fructus – fruit) is a monosaccharide and belongs to the carbohydrates. Besides, fructose is one of two components of the disaccharide sucrose, also simply called sugar (the other component is glucose). This means that food which, e.g., contains 50 g of sugar has a fructose content of 25 g. Please see below for more information about sucrose intake.
Fructose is naturally contained in most fruits, vegetables and cereals. Their fructose content varies considerably. Reference books with charts detailing the fructose content of most common foodstuffs have proved helpful. There is no guarantee, however, that the data given in these books are correct since the fructose content can vary extremely depending on kinds of fruit, ripeness and origin.
Natural foodstuffs are hardly ever completely free of fructose. Generally speaking you must be prepared to take in a variable amount of fructose if you eat vegetables, salad or fruit. The crucial factor here is your personal tolerance threshold which may vary a great deal, from well below 1g per day with HFI up to 50 g per day with mild forms of fructose malabsorption. Frusano products are generally very low on fructose because we use only fructose-free glucose syrup as a sweetener and because we select fruits low on fructose such as black currant, but also exotic fruit like calamansi. The content of fructose, sucrose and sorbitol is indicated in each case on the label. In general Frusano foodstuffs should pose no problem if consumed in moderate quantities. If your personal tolerance threshold is low we advise you to take note of the information given on the labels and to choose low-fructose products, rather the natural bicuit than the coconut biscuit, for instance, or rhubarb jam rather than blackcurrant jam.
Sucrose
Sucrose is the main ingredient of ordinary (refined) sugar, cane sugar, rock candy, icing sugar etc, i.e. all kinds of white and brown sugar. It is a disaccharide, i.e. a molecule consisting of two sugars in equal parts: glucose and fructose. So 100g sucrose contain 50 g fructose.
Some people say, that fructose as part of sucrose is less problematic than pure fructose. In spite of this, countless customers reported to us, that they have to avoid sucrose as well as fructose to live sympton-free.
So, we decided to we pay attention to a very low sucrose content as well as to a low fructose content and indicate the sucrose content for each product.
Sorbitol
Sorbitol is an alditol and resembles fructose in its chemical structure. It is commonly used as a sugar substitute in calory-reduced products; it is also contained almost without exception in all tooth-pastes. High concentrations of sorbitol are also found in fruit, e.g. in apples and above all in cherries.
Sorbitol is to be avoided if you suffer from fructose intolerance, and fructose malabsorption as a rule goes together with sorbitol intolerance.
Glucose
Glucose (dextrose), produced by enzymatic decomposition from starch, is very quickly absorbed. It is a very valuable substitute for ordinary sugar if you suffer from fructose malabsorption or fructose intolerance. It is available at chemist’s/drugstores and supermarkets. Every commercially available dextrose contains up to 10% chemically combined water, our product about 8,5%. The contained water is bound in the crystal structure of the dextrose, but is freed, when the dextrose is dissolved, e.g. in a cake dough. This is the reason, that often people say, that dextrose makes doughes or other dishes more fluid.
Good to know: When adding 1kg dextrose, please keep in mind, that you add about 85ml of water, too.
There are a number of disadvantages, however: “metallic” taste, a tendency to crystallize, often as a result of cooling (forming a whitish coating which is often mistaken for mould), and because the blood sugar level rises very fast due to extremely quick absorption. In order to avoid these disadvantages Frusano does not use pure glucose, but glucose syrup instead.
Some people say that simultaneous consumption of glucose and fructose hightens fructose tolerance. This is why Frusano products contain an extreme surplus of glucose over fructose.
Glucose Syrup
Glucose syrup is produced like glucose by enzymatic decomposition from starch. Frusano uses fructose-free glucose syrup without exception for its own products because it has superior physiological properties and tastes much better. You can find details here. However, caution is called for because the term “glucose syrup” may legally be used for syrup whose glucose has been transformed for the most part into fructose in order to achieve greater sweetness.
Maltose
Maltose is also produced from from starch by enzymatic decomposition. It consists of two molecules of glucose. Maltose is permitted if you suffer from fructose intolerance or fructose malsbsorption.
Oligosaccharides
Oligosaccharides are chains of glucose molecules which result from enzymatic decomposition of starch. By comparison they are more slowly absorbed than glucose because the chains have to be split up before being absorbed. The high content of oligosaccharides is an additional advantage of our glucose syrup.
Polysaccharides
Similar to oligosaccharides but the chains are longer. There is no no clear borderline between oligosaccharides and polysaccharides.
