FODMAP groups
Every food in the Excess Fructose group
Excess fructose means exactly what it says: the food carries more fructose than glucose. Fructose crosses out of the small intestine by a slow route with limited capacity, and glucose alongside it opens the way for more of the fructose to cross — so when the two sugars are roughly matched, most of the fructose is absorbed, and when fructose runs ahead, the surplus draws water into the small intestine as it goes, then travels on to the large intestine, where gut bacteria ferment it.
Where it turns up
- The obvious fruit — apples, pears, mango, watermelon, cherries — and their concentrated forms: juice, purée, and dried rings, where the water is gone but the fructose is not.
- Honey and agave syrup, especially where they are doing a job rather than being the point: granola, honey-glazed ham, honey mustard dressing, marinades, cereal bars.
- Sweet condiments most people file as savoury — sweet chilli, barbecue, sweet and sour, chutney, balsamic glaze, and ketchup made with high-fructose corn syrup.
- "No added sugar" and "naturally sweetened" labels, which very often mean apple or pear juice concentrate: kids' snacks, fruit squash and cordial, fruit-sweetened yoghurt, energy bars and fruit-sweetened snack bars.
- Drinks — apple, pear and mango juice, fruit smoothies, cider, and sweet or fortified wines. Juice removes the fibre and leaves the sugar, so a glass carries several pieces of fruit at once.
- Vegetables, which catch people out: asparagus and tomato in concentrated forms like paste, passata, and sun-dried.
Portion changes the answer
Because this comes down to a transport route with limited capacity, the amount on the plate matters as much as the food itself — a small portion of mango can sit within what the small intestine moves across, while a larger one leaves a surplus behind. It also stacks: several moderate portions in one sitting add up the same way one big portion does. The portion shown on each row is the serve published testing places on the low-FODMAP side for that food, listed for information only.
How to test whether excess fructose is actually yours108 foods carrying excess fructose
Heaviest first. Lower is gentler: 0 means eat freely, 100 is the heaviest in our dataset.
17 of these 108 foods have no established low-FODMAP serve in our dataset. We say so on the row rather than leaving the line blank.
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