What is fructose?
Fructose (fruit sugar) belongs as so-called simple sugar, just like glucose (dextrose), to the carbohydrates. Fructose and glucose are the two components of commercially available household sugar.
Where does fructose occur?
Naturally, fructose is mainly found in fruits. These include pome fruits, such as apples and pears, berries and exotic fruits. Honey and some vegetables, such as carrots, also contain fructose. Since fructose is twice as sweet as glucose, the food industry uses it a lot for sweetening finished products. In the form of glucose-fructose syrup, for example, it is found in confectionery, canned goods and jams.
Fructose in the human organism
Fructose, just like dextrose, is absorbed into the blood from the human intestine and transported from there to the various organs. However, the absorption of fructose is much slower than that of glucose. The liver turns fructose into glucose and finally also stores it in the body as depot fat if it is not used up immediately.
The human body can also produce fructose from glucose itself. Fructose is needed, for example, in the seminal vesicle in men as a nutrient for the growing sperm. If fructose is ingested in very large quantities, for example through many sweets, this can overtax the organism and lead to complaints.
The body cannot absorb all the fructose from the intestines, so a large part remains there. In the large intestine, the fructose serves as food for many bacteria, so that they can multiply excellently. Since bacteria produce gases and acids, people can develop flatulence, diarrhoea and stomach ache.
There is also a connection between the amount of fructose ingested and overweight, since fructose is converted to body fat faster than glucose. For this reason, other diseases associated with overweight are also favored by high fructose consumption. These include fatty liver, diabetes mellitus and cardiovascular diseases.
These diseases can be improved by an adapted diet. However, the harmful effects of fructose on the body only relate to above-average consumption. Nevertheless, fruit and vegetables are healthy and necessary for the body. Too much absorbed fructose is mainly due to the fear sugar used in the finished products for sweetening.
