February 15, 2012

Fructose in human diet

Fructose is a simple monosaccharide, the simplest sugar found in nature. Fructose is a six carbon sugar like glucose but it is a ketose sugar, not an aldose, because it contains a ketone group and not an aldehyde group.

Fructose is found naturally in fruits and honey. It is also derived from disaccharide sucrose. Apple contains about 8 grams of fructose, mean while medium banana 5 grams of fructose.

Fructose also present in invert sugar, a syrup made from sucrose and used extensively in the food industry.

It is widely used in processed and manufactured foods as a cheaper and healthy alternative to sugar especially in the form of corn syrup.

Fructose metabolism takes place mainly in the liver (75%) and to a lesser extent in the intestine and kidney (25%).

Sorbitol, also widely distributed in fruits and vegetables, is converted to fructose in the liver by sorbitol dehydrogenase. In recent years increased consumption of fructose exoaisally from sweetened beverages has been associated with an increased prevalence of:
Obesity
High cholesterol
Osteoporosis
Impaired immune system
Insulin resistance syndrome
Fructose in human diet
at 6:05 PM
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