Fructose & Fructan

[CK]

Do any of you have to avoid fructans while following the HFI diet? While reading about fructose, I found this: Fructans are polymers of fructose.

Foods with high fructan content
Chains of fructose molecules, known as fructans occur naturally in many foods. The following foods have a high fructan content: Wheat (including most beers, breads, cakes, biscuits, breakfast cereals, pies, pastas, pizzas, and some noodles), Barley, Chicory, artichokes, asparagus, green beans, leeks, onions (including spring onion).

[CK]

Here are some links I found about Fructans: www.geocities.com/CapeCanaveral/4409/fructan.htm and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fructan
and www.fruit-eze.com/ingredients/fructan.html and equisearch.com/horses_care/feeding/feed/fructan_030504/ and www.plantphysiol.org/cgi/content/full/120/2/351 and www.accessexcellence.org/RC/AB/BA/Sugar_from_Tobacco.html
Some have some interesting titles, but the information is good.

[ukbill]

Hi,
That is interesting.

However I do not think you need to worry about Fructan specifically.

I almost live on Wheat, Oats and Barley products, (excluding Wheat Germ of course). Beer made from wheat or pure barley is fine too.

However beer made from Maze, Cider (Apples) or Perry (Pears) or Wine is OUT! Which is a great pity as I love the taste of wine, for about 10 seconds before the fructose hits and makes my mouth screw up!

Leeks and cooked onion is a no no anyway as the carbs breakdown in cooking to fructose. If cooked until caramelized then not so bad, Leeks however cooked are not an option!

I have am HFI and now 50 years old, I also have a keen interest in food so I know what I can and cannot eat.

The list of foods, I have seen, is very misleading and not safe in my opinion!

Some of the foods listed as safe are definite NO's! and other groups are not mentioned at all.

With all HFI if in doubt feed then MEAT plain white bread rice and plain noodles. Do not feed bought prepared foods as they almost always contain either added sugar or lots of non safe ingredients.

An HFI person will NOT enjoy foods which have sweeteners in instead of sugars! This is a defensive reaction and should not be worried about.

I will be starting a new thread in a few days when I get chance to sort through the list of supposed approved ingredients and get rid of the items that are dangerous and those that can be used sparingly. I will also add ingredients that can be eaten.

Hope this helps?

Regards

Bill A.

PS.
I hope I do not come over as bossy but I keep reading about people who with the best intensions in the world are poisoning their children!

PLEASE be careful read all labels!

I know how lucky I am to be alive and healthy it could have been so different!. I was lucky that my mother did not listen to health visitors or Doctors and just let me eat what I wanted and what I could eat.

I was put down as JUST A FADDY eater!

[Guest]

Hi UKBill

I hope you are still planning on doing a list on the diet that you follow for approved foods, dangerous, and sparingly. I am also curious about the different types of rice (wild rice, processed brown rice like brown rice pasta, etc.) Potatoes in their forms, and corn. Do you eat zuchinni, celery, brocoli, or cauliflower? Thank you.

[ukbill]

Sorry for delay will get list sorted asap and put it up.

regards

Bill A

[ukbill]

OK work in progress.

I apologize for poor grammar and spelling.

Any assistance in tabulating this list will be grateful

I will edit and improve with time.

These are my own personal lists of what I can and cannot eat.

Please take other advice in case foods mentioned do not fit into your agreed diet.

Perhaps we need a new group where us adult HFI's can list the foods we can / not eat?

My eldest son has suggested listing this by category i.e. carbs, proteins etc.. but I am too tired to do this today sorry.

I will add to the list and amend it later. I am thinking of creating a HFI cookbook but will have to get permission to reprint and edit recipes I have "lifted" form various publications

There are more items I keep thinking of all the time but have to start from somewhere otherwise this will not get put up on the site.

I have NOT referenced any other publication or lists of food in forming this list it is purely personal, what I have been eating and living well on for the last 50 years!

I intend to continue on the same way for as long as I can as well!

I have amended this list in the knowledge learned from other postings on this site, which has brought to mind effects not understood or explained before.

So you have all had an input, thanks!

I have tried to use the American for some of the items (Zucchini instead of Courgettes) as this site is hosted in the USA

I will try to translate any other items not understood ok?

Enjoy!

[ukbill]

Things I can eat

Staple foods

Any Pure Wheat, Barley or Oat product or flour. (excluding pure Wheat Germ)
Rice Basmati (my favorite) Long Grained, Short grained White or Brown, Wild, Red Rice Flour, flaked rice, Basically any!
Pasta plain or egg.
Noodles made from Wheat and rice are OK have not tried Buckwheat and other types yet will try some in the next few months.
Any pure un-messed about meat (ie Beef, Chicken, Pork, Lamb, Duck, Goose etc. Messed about food like sausage Burgers, anything made of reshaped and reformed meat treat with suspicion)
Milk and Milk products (Plain Yogurt, Quark, Butter, Buttermilk, Cream, Milk Cheese excluding messed about Cheese that includes cranberries, apricots etc.)
Eggs (Hen, Duck Goose, Quail)
Fish and Crustaceans (Lobster, Prawns, Oysters etc.) Watch out for crispy batter coatings particularly on Scampi)
Tinned fish (beware of flavoured sauce)
Smoked and cured Salmon and other types of fish (beware of sweet cure!)
Bread (excluding sweetened bread and some whole grain)
Potatoes (King Edward variety are best) Avoid all sweet varieties , red, yellow and new potatoes.
Rhubarb
Chick Peas
Chili peppers
Lemons (one or two new varieties are very sweet but look bigger and smoother than traditional Lemons)
Any herbs e.g.. Oregano, Bay, Mint, Cumin, Coriander, Seed or leaf,
Shallots and spring onions (Scallions)
Spices, Nutmeg, Curry etc.
Green Cabbage i.e.. Savoy, Spring greens, Kale, (with large veins cut out)
Broccoli (florets only I have to cut off the stems and only a limited amount even then of this)
Spinach (without stems)
Round Lettuce, Red, Oak Leafed (excluding Iceberg a hard cabbage type variety)
Processed Coconut Cream, and Milk (for some reason fresh is too sweet for me and the fresh coconut flesh is something I like but dose not like me much so is a sparingly used item)
Split Yellow dried Peas (for some reason are fine in a Peas Pudding cooked with a ham joint)
Lentils (all varieties however these cause me IBS but a good lentil curry just has to be eaten every so often no matter what the result, I am sorry for those near me for a day or two )
Plain Cous Cous
Semolina based foods.
Tapioca.
Quinoa (like Millet) (I only use this occasionally as a filler a few grams added to a meat dish to thicken the sauce I bought 250g 6 months ago and still have 75g left, Perl Barley is much better but takes longer to cook)
Millet (as above)
Mushrooms all none poisonous varieties (farmed and wild)
Garlic
Chinese Water Chestnuts, Bean Sprouts (small amounts) Bamboo shoots.
Chinese Mushrooms
Fermented dried salted Black beans (smell really BAD before cooking but taste like Heaven in my mouth, used to make Chinese Black bean sauce)

Things I can eat raw but not cooked.

Onions
Celery
Green, Red Peppers
Fennel Root
Green Gooseberries

Things I can eat sparingly

Cooked onion (cooked until brown all over is best)
Beans (Red Kidney, Black eyed peas)
Fresh or tined Plum Tomatoes
Tomato Concentrate
Long varieties of lettuce like Cos and Romaine
Cooked Celery (if in a substantial meal of staple items)
Sprouts (The leaves only)
Cooked fennel root
Dwarf green beans, Stick beans, Butter beans, Broad Beans (All will give a few days of IBS)
Cauliflower (in very small amounts if I am not in a sensitive phase)
Popcorn
Green pea Pods before pea is fully formed ( snow peas Manoung Tou) When none sensitive.
Stir fried baby sweet corn. (Cooked and pickled in salt water first are best)
Small radishes (little red balls) used to be good but now just give instant IBS for days!

Things I can only eat as flavoring (very small amounts not enough to be classed as Nutrition)

Cooked Green and red pepper (sparingly)
Onion
Cinnamon

Things I cannot eat

.

Any Barbecue, Smoked, American, Chinese flavored or similar coated food either raw of cooked that contains sugar or sweeteners.
Softened Onions (translucent)
Leeks (In any form) Anything that lists Leeks in the list of ingredients is BAD NEWS.
Carrots, Swede, Parsnips, Turnip, just about any root Veg. that is related to the Beet family i.e. Beetroot, a red form of beet)
Zucchini, Marrow's, Large white Radishes (sorry do not know their name)
Sweet Potatoes, Yam.
Avocado, Egg Plant (Aubergine )
Fruit (strawberries, plums, grapes, Pineapple etc.)
Fresh or frozen Peas.
Soya in any form (might be a separate allergy)
Coffee Creamer or any milk type substitute that contains non milk fat (might be separate allergy)
Corn on the Cob or any Corn based product except Corn flour

ANYTHING that tastes sweet!

This is a global statement!

No sweeteners

No fizzy or still drink that are fruit flavoured

NO juices (tomato, carrot, Orange, Grapefruit etc.)

[ukbill]

Thinking about it Some of these items I can eat now but could not as a child.

So I will do a list later which is more severe in the level of Fructose content i.e. no Broccoli, beans or cooked onion.

OK?

Hope this is of help.

Keep smiling

Bill A.
PS I can only speak of food I have eaten in Europe as I have not been over the "Pond" yet so I am not aware of different food manufacturing techniques in the USA or Canada.

[sarahk]

UKBill,
My list of foods is almost like yours. What happens to you when you intake fructose?--I vomit for a while.

I too can't eat broccoli stems, but I love avocados. Wheat beer is my favorite.

I can drink wine--when the alcohol ferments, it "eats up" the residual sugars, so a glass or two has no effect on me.--except I get buzzed very easily.

[ukbill]

SarahK lets start a new thread where us HFI's can list the foods we can eat and discuss them?

I'm might be easier for other people to find the info they want then?

My symptoms are similar to yours however now IBS is a problem too long on a low fiber diet has done its damage I think

I am now on a NONE digestible fiber (therefore no sorbatol by-products) called "isogel" it is the husk of the ISOPAGBULA seed.

Recently this has had to augmented with Mebeverine Hydrochloride 135g tablets but they are SUGAR COATED!

I wish I could find a decent doctor in the UK!

IF short of food or water I go Hypoglycemic (low blood sugar) with loss of motor reflex, mental confusion, irritable and eventually very bad shakes and really feeling bad!

If I eat Sucrose and Fructose I get sick if I eat far too much but on lower amounts just want to die every cell in my body feels like it wants to vomit, I have no energy when like this at all.

If you are vomiting frequently then I would suggest you are on a FAR too high a diet of Sucrose and Fructose!

It is a pity you like the taste of sweet things! I find everything sweet tasting, no matter how slight, to be nasty!

It is my best defense by far so I will not be joining you with the eating of sweets, Smarties for one I cannot eat in the UK they make me sick.

Wine yes funny one that I have tried to drink really dry wine and enjoy the taste, however it really gives me a good kicking very fast!

I think it might be something to do with the shape of the Alcohol molecule produced by fermenting Fructose which is why Real Malt Whiskey and Pure German type beers (made from Barley Maltrose) suit me best.

I too like Wheat beer but some are too sweet for my pallet.

I suspect there maybe a blood clotting problem with HFI's who eat too much Fructose, 3 of us ( to my knowledge) have had problems / near problems so get yourself checked OK?

Keep smiling!

Just an update.

I have just bought a ready Chinese meal for the family from Tesco's as It is Friday and I am very tired.

On the ingredients list and also the nutritional list and sugar is not mentioned as an ingredient and the only item that contained sugar is the cooked onion.
Tesco claim a sugar content of only .7g per 100g product which is fine for me!
Because I am mixing this with rice I end up with less than .35g per 100g in the meal.
However the meal is inedible to me far too sweet and not with sweeteners but with Sucrose!

I can tell the difference between them.

I will be in touch with Tesco tomorrow!

Another case where I have been saved by my ability to detect sweetness in very low levels.

The meal for reference was a Chinese meal for 2, Chicken and Pineapple and Chicken and Mushroom (my meal) spring rolls and egg fried rice.

[swimfitnut]

I can't do fructans or raffinose. I just noticed that my walmart canned tuna fish has traces of soy and milk. EEK! Soy has loads of sugar. It also has vegetable broth, which probably has gluten which I am also intolerant to. So, if I want to eat tun, I'll go to Whole Foods and get it fresh instead of in a can.

[CJSculpts]

Swim,
Fresh tuna is great especially if being used for a hot entree. Canned tuna is much less expensive and is a great thing to have around the house for emergency meals. Most canned tuna will not have other ingredients added beyond tuna, water or oil, and sometimes salt. Check those labels!
;D