Fructose Malabsorption

...is what I'm diagnosing myself as having. It's a problem of the small intestine that causes a concentration of fructose in the entire intestine. Which leads to some very uncomfortable stomach somersaults.

I noticed it with apples & pb&j sandwiches a while ago but never looked into it until recently. Apples & pb&j sandwiches tear my stomach up. Which I thought was weird--especially the apples.

I was trouble shooting it with my sister & I noted that my stomach doesn't get upset after I eat a banana. When I was doing research last night on what may be going on, one website said that it's not necessarily the amount of fructose in the food item but the fructose to glucose ratio. Apples and pears have a >1 fructose to glucose ratio whereas bananas have a <1>

So who knows, I may have some degree of this condition, or I may not have it all. Personally, I'm going to change my diet with the assumption that I do to see if it helps at all. I'll try anything at this point. Today I didn't eat my generic raisin bran...high fructose corn syrup (shouldn't be eating it anyway). Nor did I put jelly on my *now* pb sandwich. No applesauce with my lunch either. And amazingly enough, I did feel better today. My stomach got a little upset, but not nearly as bad as it has been. My guess is there's high fructose corn syrup in my sandwich bread (I couldn't check because I take the loaf out of the bag).

Looking at the foods to avoid, the list goes on and on. Especially fruits--the only ones listed that were okay were cumquats, limes, lemons, & something else I can't remember right now. That said, there are varying degrees of FM & I may be able to eat some things on the 'maybe avoid & avoid' lists. And watermelons! They're on the avoid list--I was thoroughly disappointed with this because they're one of my favorite fruits. I've never noticed getting an upset stomach after eating watermelon though--I'll have to experiment.

Anyway, that's my sad story.

*picture from alternativeremediesonline.com*