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Fructose

     

Other names:
Fruit sugar
Levulose

Taste:
Fructose has a clean sweet taste.  It is about 30% sweeter than sucrose, on a weight basis.

Calories:
Fructose, like all carbohydrates (sugars), provides approximately 4 calories per gram.

Safety:
Fructose is ubiquitous in the diet.  It usually makes up about 50% of the sugars in honey, and is present in most fruits.  It has been used by diabetics because it does not cause a spike in blood glucose levels.  Recently there has been speculation that fructose is a causative factor in obesity and/or diabetes.  Given the fact that fructose has been an important part of the human diet from prehistoric times, it seems unlikely that fructose alone is the culprit, and the medical literature does not contain definitive proof either.  General overconsumption of carbohydrates is far more likely to be the problem.

Chemistry:

Fructose is a keto-sugar.
     Fructose is one of the building blocks of sucrose (table sugar).  One molecule of fructose is linked to one molecule of glucose to form a sucrose molecule.
     Fructose is a component of high fructose corn syrup (HFCS).  The HFCS used to sweeten beverages is about 55% fructose and 45% glucose.

Properties:
Fructose is the most soluble of the sugars.  4 grams of fructose can dissolve in 1 gram of water.  It is far less likely to crystallize than sucrose.  It is very hygroscopic (absorbs moisture from the air).  It also binds water well in food products, keeping them from drying out too rapidly.

Other links:
Fructose on Wikipedia Note!  The last time I looked (2 June 2008) Wikipedia had this page flagged:  "The neutrality of this article is disputed"  The "talk page" link has lengthy discussions about what is wrong with the article.

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