Woke up to this article in my inbox

[colormist]

www.charlotteobserver.com/2011/06/15/2379087/fruit-on-a-full-stomach-is-fine.html

I had just rolled over, put on my glasses, and opened my email on my phone to see this article. I was upset enough to sign up for a disqus account on my phone and post a correction in the comments before getting out of bed.

Oh yeah, fruit is totally fine for people with fructose intolerance so long as they eat other food with it. WTH? Where do these people find this crap?

[Cookies Mom]

I am posting as a guest because lightning wiped out my login. The misinformation in the article comes from Snopes, which is not always as reliable as people think. I have emailed Snopes to suggest they correct their info.

[Tammy]

Nice comeback. Couple things irritate me. Why do people talk about things they know nothing about, and why do people think Snopes is without error? I've run across other things were Snopes were wrong, but if Snopes says it...........it MUST be right!. Irritating.

[colormist]

That just depresses me even more that a newspaper would use snopes as the only reference when responding to a health question. Thanks for emailing Snopes, cookies.

After reading the article on snopes, I wonder where they got THEIR fructose intolerance facts. The three articles they mention do not have links. *sigh*

[charlie]

I think that article is just very badly written. there is a theory used in the food combining diet that fruit eaten with other food is bad as it only takes 20 mins to break down fruit so if eaten straight after a mixed meal it sits fermenting in the gut and causes problems whereas if eaten on its own either half hour before or 2 hours after then everything else can get broken down properly.

But the reference to fructose intolerance is APALLING!!!!

[hfimomof3]

In general, i think the increased focus on dietary fructose intolerance or fructose malabsorption is not very good for those of us who have HFI, because the media don't seem to understand the difference and are not making it clear that DFI/FM is different from HFI, and are perhaps giving people the impression that if you have HFI then you should just make sure to get your fructose from the right sources and not too much! Laypeople are already so ignorant about how metabolic disorders work, that I don't think additional misinformation is a good idea. A woman I used to work with used to tell me that I should try eating it now that I was 30, because maybe I outgrew it! It didn't annoy me because I know that most people just don't understand this stuff, but imagine if she had confidently said to me, "Oh, you just need to eat it on a full stomach. I read it in the newspaper and I think you need to inform yourself about your condition because you have been unnecessarily depriving yourself of fruit for years!"

[colormist]

hfimom, your comment about outgrowing hfi made me laugh. That's like asking a paraplegic to walk because they haven't tried in a while. I think they'd know right away if they regained some motor control--just like we'd notice if certain foods didn't cause us angst anymore.

You could always eat a lemon in front of her, then suggest she tried it because you think it's delicious.

And yeah, first I was happy to see that we were in the news. It was nice to see some exposure, but now the exposure's taking a bit of a dip in quality. I think we were hoping for the best case scenario. People learn of our condition, our limitations, government requires stricter labeling on foods, and suddenly it's a lot easier for us to find safe food. Pipe dreams, I guess.

EDIT: Now that I think about it. Right now we have to explain our condition to those around us. We know our limitations and can help guide their understanding. Then we're surrounded by people that are concerned about what we eat.

Those around don't even make suggestions for me anymore, but seem so confused and overwhelmed by the whole concept that they put the food-eating decisions in my hands. I still have the occasional person that tries to make me food. I finally found a breakfast that my mother-in-law seems happy (if not disgusted) to make for me, so she stops pestering me with ham, bacon, eggs for breakfast.

I can't imagine going to someone, mentioning my condition, then they say "Oh, I read all about that! Here, I made you spaghetti and meatballs for dinner. There's no fruit in that."

[kim55]

The Snopes article has been changed as of today. She just dropped the reference to fructose intolerance. I guess she figured it didn't have much to do with the article anyway.