Question:
Why doesn't the sugar in fruit cause dumping?

I am 5 1/2 months post op and cannot eat much sugar due to dumping however I can eat a large orange and bananna and be fine. I realize it is a natural sugar but why the difference. Should we even be eating fruit since it has so much sugar?    — Jennifer L. (posted on January 6, 2002)

January 6, 2002
Well I dont dump but one of my surgeons nurses does. She can eat 2 slices of fresh pineaples but dumps bad on 3 slices. Refined sugars cause most of the problems because they are concentrated more than natural sugars in fruit. No food is bad in small quanties, I drink orange juice for the otassium in it.
   — bob-haller

January 6, 2002
I have no problem with most fruits. I sometimes take a banana or apple to work. I'll eat half of it with my breakfast (at my desk, before my work day starts) and the other half with my lunch. Pears go down real well too.
   — Dee P.

January 6, 2002
i am just about 3 weeks out & dont seem to have a problem with fresh bananas, strawberries, canned cling peaches in lite syrup or pineapple in its own juice. yet refined sugar has become my mortal enemy...instant dumping. this makes me very very happy. i love fruit & am so glad it doesnt bother & i love sweets & am so glad sugar does bother me.
   — sheryl titone

January 6, 2002
I've dumped on banana, on an orange and on an apple. APPLE? And I make a fruit salad to which I add no sugar, hidden or otherwise and usually manage to dump on that. Fructose that runs through the regular old stomach was processed differently, but since it doesn't digest now, just gets dumped directly into the intestine, undigested, well, it's still sugar, so acts much like simple sugar. Now, that is over many years, so I watch myself with fruit, as much as I love it. If it'll make me dump, it'll make me full size again, so not going there.
   — vitalady

January 6, 2002
Dumping can be minimized by eating some protein along with a food that causes dumping. A bite of chicken with fruit often elminates dumping altogether. This according to my surgeons nurses.
   — bob-haller

January 6, 2002
I don't dump on (reasonable amounts of) fruit sugar. I don't think it is bad to eat fresh fruit even though it does have natural sugar in it. It also has water and fiber and vitamins. Good for you! I just try to be careful not to let it replace any of my protein. One of my favorite meals is cheese and fruit (apple or orange). It tastes great and is good for me!
   — ctyst

January 7, 2002
I think it's because the sugar in fruit is natural and not refined.
   — Jennifer H.

January 30, 2003
I too have been told by a dietician that natural sugar found in fruits and some fruit juices (100 %kind) isn't refined and that's what makes it more tolerable to some people. I can eat strawberries, melons and banana's as long as they are pureed( I'm 4 wks post-op) and have no problem . Now as far as the no sugar added and some 100 % fruit juices, I have dumped with these and will not go near them as much as I love juice. Even though the V-8 sugar free blended juices are fine to drink if you can't live without juice but the taste is gross !
   — cinnamongirl