On Wed, 30 Aug 2000, Mark Labbee wrote:

> The sugar in fruit does not have the same effect as sugar in sweets because
> most fruits have a high percentage of fructose which has a much lower
> glycemic index and thus less of an effect on blood sugar and insulin
> response.

Ruediger Hoeflicher sent me a note suggesting that the heading of
the sugar table at
http://www.osu.orst.edu/food-resource/sugar/com2.html
is right-shifted, beginning where the blank between fructose and
lactose occurs.  I am inclined to agree, and wrote to the site
owners, who are looking into it.  Anyway, if this is correct then
there is no lactose in any fruit.  But as we already discussed,
the ration of fructose and glucose can vary quite a lot.  And
some fruits, such as oranges and dates, have quite a lot of
sucrose (which breaks down to glucose and fructose).

> Interesting that dates have one of the
> highest glycemic indexes of any food. Higher than pure glucose.

And the sugar in dates appears to be mostly sucrose (assuming
that the table heading is right-shifted), even though according
to glycemic index tables glucose has a higher index than sucrose.

Todd Moody
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