Fructose intolerance also knowns as fructose malabsorption is the inability to absorb all fructose molecules within the small bowel while the food is passing through the small bowel.

Fructose intolerance is usually the result of your body not producing enough fructose transporter molecules located in the wall of the small bowel. Fructose transporters are proteins in the wall of the small bowel that transport fructose from the inside of the bowel to the bloodstream.

If you have fructose intolerance, your body does not produce enough fructose transporters.

Experts estimate that about 40% percent of the world's population is fructose intolerant.

When fructose transporters in the wall of the small bowel are absent or deficient, non-absorbed fructose molecules enter the colon where they are fermented, leading to the excessive production of short-chain fatty acids and gases such as hydrogen, methane, and hydrogen sulfide.

This in turn can lead to abdominal bloating, distension, gaseous, cramping, pain, excessive flatulence, and osmotic diarrhea.

·   The hydrogen breath test is the diagnostic test of choice. Subjects are administered fructose solution after an overnight fast, after which expired air samples are collected before and at 30-minute intervals for 3 hours to assess hydrogen gas concentrations.

·   The hydrogen-methane breath test is based on the premise that when patients fail to digest fructose in the small intestine, non-absorbed carbohydrates will reach the colon where fructose is fermented by the intestinal flora producing hydrogen and/or methane that diffuse into the circulation and are ultimately expired in the breath.

·   We offer you this breath test in Burjeel Hospital in Abu Dhabi.

·   You can contact us for an appointment (mobile no. 056-329 9935).

The best treatment of fructose intolerance is dietary modification to avoid fructose-rich containing foods.

Some individuals will be less fructose intolerant and therefore will be able to tolerate comparatively larger amounts of fructose.