Facts about Fructose¹

Wendy Dahl, Lauren Foster, and Russel Owen²

What is fructose?

Fructose is a simple sugar found in many foods. Common table sugar is made up of equal amounts of fructose and glucose. Fructose is sweeter than glucose, and for this reason has been used in many sweetened foods (1).

What foods contain fructose?

Fructose occurs naturally in honey, as well as in small quantities in many fruits and vegetables. Table 1 lists foods with naturally-occurring fructose (2).

Figure 1.

Consuming naturally-occuring forms of fructose, such as fruits and vegetables, while limiting your consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, is a step towards health. ~ Photo by Dayna Bateman, licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 License.

[Click thumbnail to enlarge.]

Fructose, in the form of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS), is added to many processed foods such as carbonated beverages, baked goods,canned fruits, and jellies.

How much fructose is recommended?

There are no specific recommendations for fructose intake. The 2005 USDA guidelines suggest that for a 2000 calorie diet, no more than about 270 calories per day should come from added sugars, fat and alcohol. This is the amount of sugar contained in one 20 oz bottle of soda. The USDA guidelines do not distinguish between sucrose (table sugar) and HFCS as added sugar sources.

Intake of HFCS and other refined sugars should be limited because they contain "empty calories", calories with no other nutritional value. They generally provide no vitamins, minerals, or protein to aid in maintaining a balanced diet (3).

How is HFCS made?

HFCS has become very popular with food companies due to its stability, ease of use and sweetness. HFCS is produced by wet milling of corn to separate starch from protein, oil and fiber. The starch then undergoes several processing steps to produce the HFCS (4), which contains either 55% or 42% fructose, with the balance mainly glucose and a few per cent of other sugars (5).

Is it safe to consume fructose?

There is debate over the safety of high intakes of fructose and HFCS. Some recent studies suggest that high-fructose diets may impact blood lipids and insulin resistance, and thus may increase risk factors for heart disease and type 2 diabetes (6). High fructose consumption may also affect appetite (7).

Are there any benefits of fructose?

Fructose intake may cause a lower rise in blood glucose than many starchy foods. This may be beneficial for individuals with diabetes (8).

Should we avoid HFCS?

The demand for low priced, sweetened foods has increased the intake of HFCS in the U.S. and abroad. In 2007, the average person consumed 56 pounds of HFCS (9). Two-thirds of this intake was from sweetened beverages (10).

The abundance of HFCS in the food supply makes it difficult to choose foods that do not contain HFCS. Avoidance is likely not necessary for good health. Consuming naturally-occurring forms of fructose, such as fruits and vegetables, while limiting consumption of sugar-sweetened beverages, is a step towards health.

References

1. Lê KA, Tappy, L. 2006. Metabolic effects of fructose. Curr Opin Clin Nutr Metab Care. 9:469–75.

2. U.S. Department of Agriculture, Agricultural Research Service. 2009. USDA National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference, Release 22. Nutrient Data Laboratory Home Page, http://www.ars.usda.gov/main/site_main.htm?modecode=12-35-45-00.

3. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture. Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2005, 6th Edition. Washington, DC: U.S. Government Printing Office, January 2005.

4. Ramírez EC, Johnston DB, McAloon AJ, Singh V. 2009. Enzymatic corn wet milling: engineering process and cost model. Biotechnol Biofuels. 21:2.

5. Hanover, L.M. and White, J.S. (1993) Manufacturing, composition, and applications of fructose. Am J Clin Nutr. 58:724S-732S.

6. Stanhope KL, Schwarz JM, Keim NL, Griffen SC, Bremer AA, Graham JL, Hatcher B, Cox CL, Dyachenko A, et al. 2009. Consuming fructose sweetened, not glucose-sweetened, beverages increases visceral adiposity and lipids and decreases insulin sensitivity in overweight/obese humans. J Clin Invest. 119:1322–34.

7. Havel PJ. 2002. Control of energy homeostasis and insulin action by adipocyte hormones: leptin, acylation stimulating protein, and adiponectin. Current Opinion in Lipidology. 13:51–59.

8. Bantle JP. 2009. Dietary fructose and metabolic syndrome and diabetes. Journal Nutr. 139:1263S–1268S

9. USDA Food Availability Spreadsheets. HFCS: Supply and disappearance. Retrieved from http://www.ers.usda.gov/data/foodconsumption.

10. Bray GA, Samara JN, Popkin BM. 2004. Consumption of high-fructose corn syrup in beverages may play a role in the epidemic of obesity. Am J Clin Nutr. 79:537–543.

Tables

Table 1.

Fructose content of foods

Food	Fructose (g/serving)
Honey (1 Tbsp)	9
Apple, Raw (Medium Size)	11
Grapes (10 grapes)	4
Watermelon (1 cup)	5
Blueberries (1 cup)	7
Strawberries, Halved (1 cup)	4
Tomato, Raw (Medium Size)	2
Banana (Medium Size)	6
Cucumber (Medium)	3
Raisins (1/4 cup packed)	12
Pear, Raw (Medium Size)	11
^{g = gram, Tbsp = tablespoon}

Footnotes

This document is FSHN10-01, one of a series of the Food Science and Human Nutrition Department, Florida Cooperative Extension Service, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences, University of Florida. Original publication date May 2010. Visit the EDIS website at http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu.

Wendy J. Dahl, PhD, associate professor; Lauren Foster, undergraduate student; Food Science and Human Nutrition Department;Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences; University of Florida; Gainesville 32611; and, Russel J. Owen, graduate student; University of Washington; Seattle, WA.

The Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences (IFAS) is an Equal Opportunity Institution authorized to provide research, educational information and other services only to individuals and institutions that function with non-discrimination with respect to race, creed, color, religion, age, disability, sex, sexual orientation, marital status, national origin, political opinions or affiliations. For more information on obtaining other extension publications, contact your county Cooperative Extension service.

U.S. Department of Agriculture, Cooperative Extension Service, University of Florida, IFAS, Florida A. & M. University Cooperative Extension Program, and Boards of County Commissioners Cooperating. Nick T. Place, Dean.

Facts about Fructose1