Upon further investigation it appears I may suffer from Fructose Intolerance. I had been doing a pretty good job of watching what I ate until a couple days ago when I had an apple (high in fructose), two bottles of juice beverage (30% juice plus a lot of high fructose corn syrup). It was a rather gassy last night and I woke up this morning with soggy drawers.

Basically what happens (from what I've read so far) is the small intestine does not properly absorb fructose, allowing it to pass into the large intestine (where it is not welcome). The bacteria in the colon get extremely upset and go to great lengths producing extra hydrogen, methane, and carbon dioxide, but the colon does its part, too, by not absorbing the normal amounts of fluids, which are expelled along with the excess gas. (Seems the sensor down there that can tell whether the approaching material is solid, gas, or liquid, gets confused and allows the fluid to exit along with the gas. Whatever is going on is not pleasant.)

So, what do I do? Unfortunately, there isn't a pill to take for this. It's back to reading labels and avoiding anything with a high fructose to glucose ratio, avoiding foods with high fructose corn syrup, and talking to my doctor the next time I see her (My previous doctor retire and he hired a woman to replace him.)

Another interesting aspect of fructose intolerance is the interference of absorption of necessary nutrients to produce neurotransmitters which can lead to clinical depression, which interestingly enough I seem to be suffering. Could it be possible that all those apples I've eaten over the years (after all my grandparents raised the red orbs) have actually been detrimental to my health? More importantly, could it be possible to get some relief from depression simply by eating food that has more glucose than fructose?

I'm definitely going to take this to heart and attempt to change my diet. On the road this is going to be a little difficult, but at least now I know those so called "juice beverages" are not good for me.