Fruits, vegetables and honey are natural sources of fructose. Some sweeteners, including molasses and agave nectar, obtain part of their sugar from natural fructose. Crystalline fructose, dried and milled to convert liquid fructose into crystals, provides sweetener to some beverages, baked goods and nutrition bars. Over-consumption of all types of fructose can elevate your triglycerides, a type of fat that accumulates in your arteries, and may lead to liver problems.
Recommended Fructose Intake
The American Heart Association recommends you limit fructose consumption to protect against high triglyceride levels and heart disease. Aim to keep your triglyceride levels below 100 milligrams per deciliter of blood or mg/dl. If they rise above 150 mg/dl, putting you in the borderline risk category for heart attacks and strokes, include no more than 100 grams of fructose in your daily diet. If your triglycerides measure higher than 200 mg/dl, keep your fructose consumption to 50 grams a day or less. All types of fructose -– natural, high-fructose corn syrup, molasses, agave nectar, table sugar and crystalline fructose -– count toward your daily totals.
Natural Fructose
You can eat plenty of fresh fruits and vegetables, two natural sources of fructose, without exceeding American Heart Association guidelines. A healthy diet includes about 1 ½ cups to 2 cups of fruit and about 2 ½ cups to 3 cups of vegetables daily. An apple, considered a high-fructose fruit, contains 10.74 grams of fructose. You could fulfill your fruit need with apples with less than 22 grams of fructose. Vegetables add little to your fructose totals. A cup of butternut squash, for example, contains 1.39 grams of fructose, and a cup of peas provides 0.57 grams of fructose.
Crystalline Fructose
Half of the sugar from table sugar comes from fructose, but nearly all of the sugar in crystalline fructose comes from fructose. A teaspoon of table sugar contains 2 grams of fructose, which means a teaspoon of crystalline fructose contains about 4 grams. A single serving of some types of flavored and vitamin-enhanced drinks sweetened with crystalline fructose provides up to half of a day’s supply of added sugars and up to a fourth of your daily quota for fructose. The American Heart Association recommends women consume no more than 100 calories of added sugar daily and men no more than 150. Before you purchase flavored water, check the nutrition label for calories from sugar.
Fructose and Liver Disease
If you consume a lot of fructose – natural, crystalline or from high-fructose corn syrup – you may put yourself at increased risk for nonalcoholic fatty liver disease, according to the study published in the June 2010 issue of “Hepatology.” M.F. Abdelmalek and other researchers at Duke University found that people who drank a lot of fructose-sweetened drinks, including fruit juice and soda, increased their likelihood of developing liver fibrosis, a type of liver scarring that can lead to cirrhosis of the liver. High consumption was defined as seven or more servings weekly.
References
- Fructose.org: Benefits
- "Circulation"; Triglycerides and Cardiovascular Disease A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association; Michael Miller, et al.; April 2011
- The Golden Spiral; Crystalline Fructose; January 2009
- “Hepatology”; Increased Fructose Consumption is Associated with Fibrosis Severity in Patients with Nonalcoholic Fatty Liver Disease; M.F. Abdelmalek, et al.; June 2010
- United States Department of Agriculture, Choose My Plate: How Much Fruit is Needed Daily?
- United States Department of Agriculture, Choose My Plate: How Many Vegetables are Needed Daily or Weekly?
- United States Department of Agriculture Nutrient Database
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