Wonderful - you read the paper! You caught an important point. Non-IBS individuals can suffer IBS like symptoms when the level of fructose gets too high. The point you seemed to have missed is that IBS suffers are more likely than non-IBS suffers to also suffer from fructose malabsorption.
Quote: A person is considered to suffer from fructose malabsorption if s/he is unable to absorb x grams of fructose ingested over y period of time
The review paper does not give such a definition it simply reviews the current literature. It does say that "The absorptive capacity for fructose ranged from less than 5 grams to greater than 50 grams was unrelated to age or sex and was dose and concentration dependent". It goes on to cite a number of studies that show the prevalence of fructose malabsorption in the population with function bowel disorders, including IBS, is 35%-75% higher than normal.
In summary, this review paper suggests that IBS suffers are more likely than normal individuals to be a fructose malabsorber too. There are other papers that suggest IBS suffers are more likely to suffer from lactose digestion problems too. In fact there is a whole body of research that shows IBS suffers have a greater tendency to have troubles with carbohydrates such as lactose, fructose and sorbitol (simple carbohydrate) and IF (complex carbohydrates). Our community call all of these triggers. Of course there are others triggers such as fats and oils.
I know from professional diagnosis and from experience that I am an IBS suffer with fructose malabsorption. I know I have troubles with other carbohydrates too in particular IF. Also, I know from experience that I cannot tolerate 5 grams of fructose at one time. In this message I give an example of how I use this information to my benefit to decide which and how much fruit to eat.
As you know triggers do not have to be a yes or no. A trigger might not kick in until it exceeds a certain level as in the case of 'making sure to have IF with a base of SF'. Fructose and glucose work in a similar way. The paper explains this quite well.
Quote: I do not, however, think that fructose malabsorption causes IBS nor do I believe that all - or even most - IBS suffer from fructose malabsorption.
I don't think anyone would say the fructose malabsorption would 'causes IBS'. IBS is called a syndrome because it does not have a single cause. It has many triggers of which fructose can be one. I only report my personal experience with IBS and what I read in the research literature in hope that it might be helpful to others. You can choose to not believe what you want.
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