Sorbitol and fructose by food

Methodology

These explanations describe the filters in the Angiochef app, where they apply to recipes. This catalog lists the values for each food.

What does the Low sorbitol preference mean?

Low sorbitol means less than 0.20 g of sorbitol per reference serving — the threshold published by Varney et al. (2017, Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology). A serving is the recipe itself when it makes one, the pieces the recipe states when it's counted in pieces, and for sauces, dips, soups, stocks and smoothies a standard reference amount from the US FDA's table — 125 ml for sauces, 30 g for dips, 245 ml for soups and stocks, 240 ml for smoothies. Anything else is judged as the whole recipe, which is stricter. It is a threshold, not an absence: sorbitol intolerance depends on the dose, so a recipe can be low in sorbitol without being free of it. The values come from two official food-composition databases — Germany's Bundeslebensmittelschlüssel (BLS 4.0, Max Rubner-Institut, CC BY 4.0) and the French Ciqual table (Anses) — and we work out each recipe from the amount of every ingredient it uses. Some ingredients, among them lettuce, honey, maple syrup, pomegranate and lentils, have never been analysed for sorbitol by any public database. We never treat "not measured" as "zero": by default the preference shows only recipes where every ingredient has a measured value, and you can switch it to include the rest, which are then flagged on the recipe itself. One honest limit — this covers sorbitol, not FODMAPs in general. Garlic and onion, for instance, are a fructan question, and no public database measures fructans. This is information to help you cook, not medical advice.

What does the Low fructose preference mean?

Low fructose means less than 0.40 g of excess fructose per reference serving — fructose minus glucose, counted only when the result is positive. A serving is the recipe itself when it makes one, the pieces the recipe states when it's counted in pieces, and for sauces, dips, soups, stocks and smoothies a standard reference amount from the US FDA's table — 125 ml for sauces, 30 g for dips, 245 ml for soups and stocks, 240 ml for smoothies. Anything else is judged as the whole recipe, which is stricter. Glucose helps the body absorb fructose, so a food with as much glucose as fructose isn't an excess-fructose problem, however much fructose it holds. The 0.40 g threshold is published by Varney et al. (2017, Journal of Gastroenterology and Hepatology) — the same paper behind the Low sorbitol preference's cutoff. The values come from the same two official food-composition databases — Germany's Bundeslebensmittelschlüssel (BLS 4.0, Max Rubner-Institut, CC BY 4.0) and the French Ciqual table (Anses) — and we work out each recipe from the amount of every ingredient it uses. One ingredient, Jerusalem artichoke, has never been analysed for fructose by any public database; recipes containing it are left out by this preference and flagged on the recipe itself. One honest limit — this covers fructose, not FODMAPs in general. Garlic and onion, for instance, are a fructan question, and no public database measures fructans. This is information to help you cook, not medical advice.