I love dried fruit. It stores well and is a tasty, healthy snack.
There might be a problem though, some fruits have higher fructose content than glucose content. I first learned of this when I was reading about Izze soft drinks. Their website explains that their soft drinks have fructose in them because it naturally occurs in juice. I checked up on them, its true.
I happened to find this page at wikipedia too: Fructose malabsorption.
Its a condition that not everyone has, apparently. But I still find it relevant in my quest to avoid fructose. They list these fruits as having more glucose than fructose:
- apricot
- nectarine
- peach
- plum
- blueberry
- blackberry
- boysenberry
- cranberry
- raspberry
- strawberry
- kumquat
- grapefruit
- lemon
- lime
- mandarin
- orange
- tangelo
- banana
- jackfruit
- kiwi fruit
- passion fruit
- pineapple
- rhubarb
- tamarillo
However, they list dried fruit as problematic for people with fructose malapsorption. Too bad! I guess I'll try to find the type of dried fruit which contains the closest balance between fructose and glucose. Unfortunately, I'm finding that a lot of dried fruit producers add fructose and even high fructose corn syrup to their dried fruit!
Thanks to the Nutrient Data Laboratory, I was able to discover that dried plums have a decent sugar breakdown (all values in grams for a 100 gram sample):
| Sugars, total | 38.13 | 10 | 6.339 |
| Sucrose | 0.15 | 12 | 0.044 |
| Glucose (dextrose) | 25.46 | 15 | 2.995 |
| Fructose | 12.45 | 15 | 1.403 |
| Lactose | 0.00 | 9 | 0 |
| Maltose | 0.06 | 9 | 0.062 |
Annoyingly, they don't list the sugar breakdown for many dried fruits, like bananas, apricots or apples. The sugar breakdown for raisins is included, and indeed there is slightly more fructose than glucose in them. Dates (medjool) are another dried fruit which have a pretty good balance of fructose and glucose.
After conducting some of my own research, I feel that there are some good options for people who are looking to restrict their fructose intake and purchase foods that will store well, namely dried plums (prunes), dried figs, and dates.
Note: Sucrose is an equal balance between glucose and fructose.
Related: In researching this topic I came across this interesting site - A Life Less Sweet
Thank you so very much for your research. I love dried fruit and I eat a lot of it but I am struggling with blood pressure control. I am at my ideal wt., am a low fat vegan, I exercise regularly....but I have this problem. This is day 2 with dried fruit restriction.
Interesting. Does high blood pressure run in your family? Glad you appreciated the site.