Fructose free must-haves

In general, creating fructose free meals is pretty easy. It’s just a matter of checking food labels carefully, even on things like, say, canned tomatoes, pizza bases and pita bread, things which reason says should not have sugar but which the manufacturers, in their wisdom, have poured a couple of spoonfuls into. The good news is that for many things, you can find a brand that offers the product without the sugar. And voila, fructose free dinner is served.

There are some particular things which I've found handy to have around now that I'm avoiding fructose. Some of these are to replace sugar, and some are to replace the snacks/treats I used to eat. So, today I wanted to share my top cupboard must-haves for fructose-free eating. 

Rice malt syrup

This fructose free syrup is a little like honey in consistency, and doesn’t taste like rice at all- hurray! I use it on toast sometimes, or even on Weetbix instead of honey. 

Fructose-free milo

This is an amazing recipe recreation by The Colonel over at the Sweet Poison forum. It was a cinch to make once I sourced the ingredients, and I made a big old container full ready for a lovely hot drink whenever the mood strikes. Delicious and completely fructose free. Thanks Colonel!

Dextrose and glucose syrup

These are the sugar-substitute staples for fructose free baking. I’ve used these for chocolate, coconut cake and caramels so far, and there are more to come. But if you can’t be bothered waiting for me to experiment with treats you can check out the Sweet Poison forum for recipe ideas.  For those from the USA, you might want to check out nofructose.org where Bill is experimenting with fructose-free recipes using US ingredients.

Citric acid

This is a bit of an odd one, but lately I’ve found that I love a glass of water with just a sprinkle of citric acid in it- a bit like having a slice of lemon in water. It adds just a bit of sourness, as if I’m having a cordial drink but without the sweetness. With my tastebuds now unused to much sweetness, I really like the sourness. I don’t think it would be wise to overdose on this, since it is an acid and might do strange things to the tummy, but since I don’t drink soft drinks, juice or cordial anymore, it makes a nice change from plain water. You could easily add a sprinkle of dextrose as well to make it more like a lemon-y cordial.

Peanut butter

I’ve always loved peanut butter but I used to use it very rarely because of the fat. I would use jam- ie, fruit boiled with sugar- in preference to peanut butter. Now I’m making friends with fat and enjoying the delicious creaminess of smooth peanut butter (no added sugar variety, obviously).

Smiths Crinkle Cut Cheese and Onion chips

Flavourings in chips, savoury snack biscuits and so on are usually a sugar minefield, so at first I was limited to plain potato chips if I wanted a snack. I quickly got bored of these and scanned the flavoured chips in desperation. Surely I could find one without sugar?? Nope, no good. Until I looked more closely at the Cheese and Onion flavoured Smiths Crinkle Cut Chips. The ingredients list includes dextrose but no other sugars. And dextrose is just glucose, so it’s fine from a fructose perspective. And as luck would have it, cheese and onion is one of my favourite flavours. So, huzzah!

Of course over-indulging on any of the above will send me back to my now-abandoned fat pants, but the good thing is that without the fructose, I don’t over-indulge. Huzzah again! 

It’s always good to get new things to add to the repertoire, so I’d love to hear from you- what are your favourite fructose free finds or cupboard staples?