paintings are by Henry Ryland

Fructose, or fruit sugar, is a simple ketonic monosaccharide found in many plants, where it is often bonded to glucose to form the disaccharide sucrose.

Sucrose is a compound with one molecule of glucose covalently linked to one molecule of fructose.

A description of how fructose is processed by the digestive system is provided in Fructose and sucrose digestion.

Pure, dry fructose is a very sweet, white, odourless, crystalline solid and is the most water-soluble of all the sugars.  It is found in honey, tree and vine fruits, flowers, berries, and most root vegetables.  I have provided a list below form the USDA National nutrients database to provide more precise information on which foods it is found in.

Commercially, fructose is frequently derived from sugar cane, sugar beets, and corn. Crystalline fructose is the monosaccharide, dried, ground, and of high purity. High-fructose corn syrup (HFCS) is a mixture of glucose and fructose as monosaccharides.

In the list that follows I have excluded a number of food types, as the USDA database contains over 60 pages of products that contain fructose, in other words over 2000 products.  In general I have tried to exclude manufactured items, as most are only available in the USA and the food labelling normally tells you if fructose is in the product anyway. 

 

Food types excluded which are known to contain fructose or sucrose, often in quite large amounts, include : 

• breakfast cereals;
• ice cream - ice cream contains sugar, and often it is fructose or sucrose
• meat stuffings - for all meats - turkey, chicken, pork, lamb etc
• baby foods - as an example 'fruit and vegetable', and 'apple and sweet potato' contain over 7g per 100g even though they are unsweetened;
• baked products - pastries, crackers,  'cookies', biscuits, pancakes, bagels, pies, muffins, rolls, sponges, cakes and some sweet breads often contain fructose or sucrose; even ordinary naan bread, bread, tacos, rolls and pizzas can contain sugars around 2g per 100g
• catsups and other ketchups
• dips
• various mustards - there is one example in the list, but this can only be representative as it depends on the manufacturing process
• pickles - for example cucumber sweet pickle, piccalili, dill pickles
• chutneys - all chutneys contain sugars as this is what preserves them
• canned fruit, which is usually canned in fruit and sugar syrup
• soft drinks - colas, pops, ginger ale and other fizzy sweetened drinks;
• yoghurts - those containing fruit or those which are sweetened
• fast foods;
• ready meals - numerous ready meals contain sugars including salads such as coleslaw;
• restaurant foods;
• dehydrated or canned vegetables - sugars are added to act as preservatives
• snacks - crisps/chips, pretzels etc;
• ready made soups - tomato soup for example contains sugars from the tomatos and sugars from the added fructose and sucrose,
• sauces and gravies [which often contain a surprisingly large amount of sugar] - included in this is not just sweet sauces, which are an obvious source, but sauces such as horseradish sauce or the various tomato sauces for pasta;
• salad dressings, which again can often contain large amounts of sugars;
• sweets [which by definition contain sugars]. 

For those who think some cereals are 'healthy' it might be of interest to know that Kellogg's raisin bran [as an example] contains 12g of sugars for every 100g of cereal.

Foods with no fructose

 

Raw plain meat - Simple raw meat contains no or only trace amounts of sugars.  Turkey, chicken, beef, venison, duck and pork contain no sugars.  Veal from Australia contains no sugars.  Veal from the USA does, and I have my suspicions about the way it is handled in the USA.

Processed meats may contain a considerable amount of fructose often used as a preservative. A hamburger, for example, can contain a lot  - about 3g per 100g, as can such dishes as chicken nuggets and meatballs.  Ham often contains a lot of sugar preservative in general, as does bacon, pastrami, some sausages like 'bockwurst', and luncheon meats.  Pepperoni and salami appear to be preserved on the whole using salt and spices and not sugars.  Many 'organic' sausages and bacon contain no sugars.

Raw plain unprocessed fish and shellfish - Raw fish and shellfish contain no sugars - thus flatfish, cod, halibut, perch, pollock, salmon, trout, rockfish, sardines, oyster, mussels, clams, lobster, shrimp, prawns and scallops are sugars free.

But some of the manufacturers who process the fish when they freeze it or process it add sugars.  Some fish fingers contain sugars, some of the artificial 'crabstick' products contain sugars, 'fishsticks' contain sugars, I came across a food called 'double crunch shrimp' which had sugars, as did breaded shrimp.  Canned sardines contain no sugar, but if they are in tomato sauce they do.

Fresh Spices and herbs  - generally do not contain much sugar, but as both red peppers and onions contain fructose, paprika does, as does chilli powder and onion powder.  The USA tends not to eat fresh herbs or spices and as such the only indicator of the sugar content from these is via the dried spices and herbs.  Fresh herbs may contain only a trace amount or at least a great deal less sugar than the dried herbs, as the processing may add sugar content - concentrating whatever sugars there are.

 

Seeds - seeds only contain fructose or sucrose if they have been processed, for example, roasted and then sprayed with sugars.  Sprouted seeds do contain fructose.

Beverages - Coffee, tea, and beer [which may contain sugar, but not fructose or sucrose] contain no fructose as long as they have not been 'processed'.  Chocolate contains no sucrose or fructose.  Even dark chocolate bars contain no fructose, though they contain sugar.

Wines and fortified wines are a source of fructose and sucrose when the sugars have not been converted into alcohol.  Red wine does not appear on the chart according to the USDA and it might be because the sugars all become alcohol, whereas in white wine they don't, or it might be because they haven't measured it yet.

Most legumes -  contain very little or no sugars - kidney beans, navy beans, peanuts, soy beans etc contain no fructose.

But some canned beans - such as baked beans or chili beans, contains a great deal more from the combination of the tomatoes, which have their own sugars,  and the added sugars from the manufacturer.

Vegetables - How much sugar a vegetable contains is dependent on how long it has been picked.  New potatoes straight out of the ground are so sweet they are almost like a fruit.  Baby, freshly picked carrots are much the same.  The longer out of the ground a vegetable is, the more 'starchy' it becomes and thus measuring the sugar content of vegetables is fraught with problems.  Most vegetables contain sugars.  Onions, peas, carrots and sweetcorn contain more fructose than most.  Potatoes are discussed separately below. 

The USDA chart provides no information on root vegetables like parsnip, beetroot, salsify, scorzorona, and so on, though it does have swede [rutabaga].  Root vegetables are known to contain fructose, again the amount depends on their age and freshness.

Dairy products -  contain no or practically no sucrose or fructose - in most cases none.  All the cheeses, plain yoghurt, milk, butter, cream, buttermilk contains no sucrose or fructose.  

But there are some processed cheeses in particular to which sugars are added - mozarella, cheese sticks, cheese slices, etc.  It also appears the the Americans have no access to milk - in other words milk from the cow.  All their milk is processed with things taken out and things stuffed in -  and the processing appears to add sugars to the milk.

Eggs - if fresh and unprocessed straight from the hen or duck contain no fructose or sucrose

Cereals - simple unprocessed grains such as oats contain no fructose, thus porridge is fructose free.  Sorghum, millet and a number of other grains [though not all] are also fructose free.

 

Rice and pasta  - all types of unprocessed rice [white raw, basmati, wholegrain] and the majority of pasta, including noodles,  contains no fructose.  In the USA it appears manufacturers occasionally add sugars to macaroni and spaghetti, a process which does not seem to take place in Europe.  Wild rice is not actually rice, it is a type of grass and may contain fructose and sucrose [see table below].

Mushrooms - all the unprocessed mushrooms contain no sugars - shiitake, oyster, enoki, maitake, chanterelle, morel, button, chestnut and portabella.  There are two exceptions shown in the chart below -  Portabella and something the Americans call a 'white' mushroom, appear to have contradictory entries in the same chart, but it is possible the two entries in the chart below are for processed mushrooms - canned or frozen and this has not appeared correctly in their tables. 

Potatoes - in the chart below you will see that potatoes do contain fructose.  In the NDB tables, however, french fries do not appear to contain fructose.  Most french fries in America come frozen and preprepared and it may be part of the processing that turns the sugars into starches - or they may have got it wrong!

Nuts - all the simple plain unprocessed nuts, blanched or with their skins on, contain no fructose or only trace amounts.  The exceptions are pistachio nuts and macademia nuts.  Again the table appears contradictory as it contains almonds, walnuts , cashews, hazelnuts and pine nuts, for example.  But these appear to have been processed - roasted or fried in oil and then sprayed with sugars to sweeten them. 

Foods with sugars - fructose

As you can see from the following chart fructose comes principally from honey, molasses and maple syrup, as well as fruits and vegetable fruits like tomatoes squashes, aubergines [eggplant] and red peppers.  Dried fruit contains more sugars per gram than fresh fruits.

Smoothies, though not listed are thus a source of considerable amount of fructose.

The presence of miso in the chart is extremely confusing.  Miso is fermented soy beans and should have no fructose.