Fructose

Bera

Regular Member

Joined : Nov 2005

Posts : 24

Posted 1/13/2006 8:34 PM (GMT -6)

I was just wondering if anyone else has issues with eating fructose or sugar. On three different occassions after eating a sugary candy like gummy worms in large quantities, I've gotten extremely bad D that last three or four days. I can normal handle fructose in smaller doses but always have some RLQ pain. I'm wondering if anyone else gets pain from fructose or D that last days. I am having a real hard time cutting out all fructose. Despite every website saying it's evil, it's in almost all foods.

pb4

Elite Member

Joined : Feb 2004

Posts : 20577

Posted 1/14/2006 1:12 AM (GMT -6)

I actually agree that sugar is terrible for you and sugar substitues as well, it causes bacterial overgorwth and much more.

blondie15

Regular Member

Joined : Aug 2005

Posts : 185

Posted 1/14/2006 11:48 AM (GMT -6)

Yeah, i have alot of problems with fructose. Especially in sugary fruit drinks! Those KILL me. Mine dont last for days, but i have 2-3 episodes of diarrhea and bad cramping. And alot of raw sugar in candy does it to me too. Sugar is just evil! haha

Keriamon

Veteran Member

Joined : Jun 2005

Posts : 2976

Posted 1/16/2006 10:20 AM (GMT -6)

Make sure, whatever you do, not to eat sugar-free anything (including gum and mints). Sugar alcohols will tear anyone's stomach up, much less an IBSer.

I read an article (there's a link here somewhere, but you'll have to hunt for it--it's probably entitled something like "sugar causes IBS?") from a pediatrician who blamed IBS in children on overconsumption of sugar. I don't know if this was just his theory based on personal observation or if he had access to medical journals which confirm this, but it may be that sugar is indeed causing you problems. Unfortunately, the only way to get around high fructose corn syrup and refined white sugar is to cook everything from scratch and/or go organic. HFCS should not be found in an organic foods as it is made by running corn syrup over all sorts of weird stuff that's been chemically and genetically modified (not to mention grown from genetically-modified corn). Organic foods can contain organic sugar and honey, so you'll still have to read the label, but you may find that once you get rid of the HFCS that's in EVERYTHING, you can tolerate small amounts of real sugar and honey in your foods.

Organic pre-packaged food is expensive. My mother has fibromyalgia and has gone organic to try and lessen her attacks (there is some evidence that chemicals in foods worsen it), but when it's youre health at stake, you can usually find a way to scrape together the extra money for safer food. Of course if you have the time to cook from scratch, that is much cheaper. If you can grow it yourself it costs next to nothing, but even so, local farmers' markets and roadside fruit/vegetable stands usually beat a grocer hands-down. And most small-time farmers use very little in the way of fertilizers and pesticides (of course all you ultimately have to worry about is sugar).

LuckyOne

Regular Member

Joined : Mar 2005

Posts : 48

Posted 1/17/2006 6:45 PM (GMT -6)

Fructose is an absolute no-no for me. I started having IBS symptoms in 1985, which later developed into Crohn's disease. I was able to get it under control by drastically altering my diet, and for the last 14 years, I've been pretty much symptom-free. A couple of years ago, my wife and I found out that my daughter had an allergy to corn, and as we investigated all the ingredients and additives derived from corn, I made an amazing discovery: all of the items that bothered my bowel contain some form of corn product. By avoiding anything with corn in it, I stay symptom-free. As soon as I eat anything with corn, the bloating, gas, cramps and diarrhea return. I can, however, eat sugar (cane or beet) or honey without any problems.

Pretty much all commercially produced fructose comes from corn, as well as glucose, dextrose, sorbitol, liquid sugar, golden syrup, table syrup, and most of the artificial sweeteners. Unfortunately for me, very few products are actually sweetened with sugar anymore - fructose has taken over because it's cheaper.

7Lil

Veteran Member

Joined : Apr 2005

Posts : 3269

Posted 1/17/2006 6:53 PM (GMT -6)

Hi LuckyOne,
Welcome to the IBS board!

Thank you for sharing and giving us such great info. Glad to read you are doing well and symptom free.
Take care...

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