List of permitted and non-permitted foods

[Jonas Coltman]

I have HFI and a recently blood test came back showing that my liver function is slightly abnormal. Ive not been watching my fructose intake at all lately, mainly because I can't remember which foods are bad, obviously I know fruits and high sugar content foods are bad but I can never remember which few vegetables I can eat? Could somebody post a list of what foods are good and bad?

Many thanks,
Jonas

[Tammy]

Hi Jonas
There really isn't a good list available. There are several lists that have been made but they all contradict other lists.
The one that is the basis that a lot use is here:
www.bu.edu/aldolase/HFI/
If you really want to be fructose free, then stay away from all veges until your levels are down.

[colormist]

For vegetables, the list is pretty short: canned green beans, spinach, big white potatoes.
The rest of the vegetables might be tolerated, but they have more fructose in them. Since your liver function is abnormal, I think you should just stick with the list above.

You also need to make sure your meats are free of additives (broth, plumping agents, brine, water, natural flavors). I'm not sure where you live, but plain cuts of beef should be okay. Perdue makes additive-free chicken.

Unflavored dairy products should be fine. Don't buy anything seasoned or with any added flavors.

Plain pasta (not whole grain) is fine.

Pay attention to your breads. You're going to need to read the label and you'll have the best luck buying more expensive breads ($4/loaf). Look for italian, french, rye, or sourdough. On the label, make sure to avoid anything with honey, sugar, molasses, and words that end in 'itol' or 'ose' (there are actually ingredients--like dextrose and glucose--that are safe that end in those letters, but since you're having difficulty remembering the ingredients, this might be easier).

This is my quick and dirty list. If you need more ideas, I have a pinterest board with recipes and ingredients that are safe:

[legendin]

Hi Jonas,

If you can send me an email at [e-mail] I'll send you a really good list of safe stuff and sweeteners. I'm on ipad and can't copy the doc from my email to this board.

Best Regards

Egemen Turan

[legendin]

Colormist, that's a really good collection. Thanks.

[Rumlee]

Nov 13, 2013 9:59:01 GMT -5 colormist said:

For vegetables, the list is pretty short: canned green beans, spinach, big white potatoes.
The rest of the vegetables might be tolerated, but they have more fructose in them. Since your liver function is abnormal, I think you should just stick with the list above.

You also need to make sure your meats are free of additives (broth, plumping agents, brine, water, natural flavors). I'm not sure where you live, but plain cuts of beef should be okay. Perdue makes additive-free chicken.

Unflavored dairy products should be fine. Don't buy anything seasoned or with any added flavors.

Plain pasta (not whole grain) is fine.

Pay attention to your breads. You're going to need to read the label and you'll have the best luck buying more expensive breads ($4/loaf). Look for italian, french, rye, or sourdough. On the label, make sure to avoid anything with honey, sugar, molasses, and words that end in 'itol' or 'ose' (there are actually ingredients--like dextrose and glucose--that are safe that end in those letters, but since you're having difficulty remembering the ingredients, this might be easier).

This is my quick and dirty list. If you need more ideas, I have a pinterest board with recipes and ingredients that are safe:

[Rumlee]

Hello
I'm new to HFI, and I am having trouble understanding if I can eat a little bit of food with maximum 1 g a day or nothing at all. You wrote about green beans, potatoes and also link to recipes with engridiences containing sugar like spinach. So is it okay to eat max 1 g a day similar to 100 g of green beans when diagnosed with HFI?

You wrote that plain pasta is safe. Is that normal wheat pasta? I can read many places that wheat is a big trigger so I'm confused. Is it HFI safe?

Sorry I'm just trying to find other kinds of food than oat flakes and rice. :-) and there really is a need for a HFI safe food list on the Internet. Most web sites only write about what's not safe.

[colormist]

Plain pasta is safe. Whole wheat pasta is not safe. Whole wheat pasta will quickly go over the 1g max tolerance that many people with HFI have.

[charlie]

Wheat pasta is a trigger for Fructose Malabsorption as is all wheat due to the Fructans, not HFI.

When you start out on the HFI diet you are better to avoid all fruit and vegetables for a while, certainly a few weeks to get a good baseline then start slowly and carefully adding in to find your safe limit as there is alot of variety.

The main reason there is not a full list of safe foods is that alot of ingredients are OK for some, or in some countries but not in others. The Boston University site as a pretty good starter list though.

But you need a diagnosis really first as has been found before on this site, people start finding they are reacting more and more thinking it is HFI but eventually realise it is actually a different condition so I advise keeping a very open mind when you are talking about what you react to for now.

I hope it is white rice you are using, we use Basmati rice seems to be best. Avoid brown rice.

[vetster02]

Look up high fodmap diet list it's my bible

[stefaniebillette]

I agree. The list of what is safe is so much shorter than a list of what is not safe. And the Boston website is completely outdated.
I think people who live with this condition are the best source of information of which foods are actually tolerated well and which are not.

[ukbill]

Be aware that foods in different countries are made differently and some which are safe in one country are unsafe in another.. also Varieties make a huge difference.

Potatoes for instance you want only white floury types and always peal them chop them small and boil them in a LOT of water (soaking 1st is good too) to reduce the fructose to a minimum.

Cabbage is OK in small amounts if you only use the green leaves and remove the stalks and veins in the leaves (the large ones) and again boil quickly in a lot of salted water.

If you are looking at food lists bear in mind "tolerated" is not the same as SAFE!

[Nicky]

I was born with hfi 46 years ago and struggled with my weight , does anyone know why my body is riddled in gay and cellulite when I eat such a strict healthy diet
Thanks

[Nicky]

Jun 5, 2016 2:33:48 GMT -5 Nicky said:

I was born with hfi 46 years ago and struggled with my weight , does anyone know why my body is riddled in fat and cellulite when I eat such a strict healthy diet
Thanks

[colormist]

From what I understand, cellulite is genetic. Even underweight people will have it if they're genetically predisposed to have cellulite. So you should probably stop worrying about that.

I am still trying to figure out what the best diet is for HFI and a healthy weight. It's not easy to lose weight with HFI--particularly considering hypoglycemia and how exercise tends to trigger it. If you're obese, you could talk to your doctor about what their suggestions might be. Everything it just more complicated with HFI.

I did have luck losing weight with a fat free diet (which was the worst) and a low-carb diet (also, the worst). Low-carb diet also caused me to have to remove my gallbladder (my family is predisposed to such a condition) a bit earlier than anticipated.

[christopher]

Nicky - eating strict does not necessarily imply that it is healthy. Avoiding certain food items that make you sick, does not necessarily make your diet "healthy". Of course, having HFI and not adhering to a strict avoidance of noxious sugars is definitely not healthy, but strict avoidance of the same sugars has obvious negative consequences as well. For example, not able to eat a lot of fruit and vegetables means that you're not getting a lot of important nutrients you would otherwise, such as micronutrients, probiotics and prebiotics. It also means that you have to get your "fill" from other sources. As most people, for various reasons, do not fill up on meat/fish/protein that leaves you with generally the whitest of carbohydrates, which are terribly insulinogenic. So - you are probably eating way more carbohydrates than what the body actually needs, and in order to avoid hyperglycemia, insulin is secreted and the carbs are stored as fat. If you are "fat", this is the simplified explanation as to why that is. There might be other factors at play as well, but one does not get around this fact.

Interestingly I do know that there´s been a hype on the internet quite recently touting the "all potatoes" diet for weight loss. I would not really recommend it, as it sound awful, which incidentally is why people also lose weight on it. You reach your fill pretty quickly when eating potatoes only.

[tummyache]

46 years ago especially, and even today, there is still not a full understanding about HFI and how the digestive pathway all works together genetically. I wouldn't be surprised if there is more cross-over between fructose, glucose and glycogen [ie. Hereditary Fructose Intolerance, Fructose Malabsorption, and Glycogen Storage Disease] than is realized. The pathway is all one biochemical road that interconnects. It is possible that some of us are having a weight problem because of the carbohydrate load as mentioned, but also because of having a problem also with glycogen storage, which predisposes to weight gain. I am thinking of an article I ran across recently which could be pertinent here:
High liver glycogen in hereditary fructose intolerance

Gut, 1971, 12, 929-932
A. R. R. CAIN AND BRENDA E. RYMAN
From the Children's Department, Newcastle General Hospital, and the Department of Biochemistry, Royal Free Hospital School of Medicine, London

SUMMARY
A case of hereditary fructose intolerance is reported in a girl aged 2 years at the time of her death. She had apparently progressed normally until the age of 14 months. At 19 months she was admitted to hospital with failure to thrive, hepatomegaly, and superficial infections. Investigations revealed hypoglycaemia, persistent acidosis, aminoaciduria, and a high liver glycogen level which suggested that she had glycogen storage disease. There was also some evidence of malabsorption. At necropsy the liver enzyme estimations showed that fructose 1-phosphate aldolase activity was absent and that fructose 1,6-diphosphate aldolase activity was reduced. Hereditary fructose intolerance and glycogen storage disease have been confused in the past on clinical grounds, but a high liver glycogen level has not previously been reported in hereditary fructose intolerance.