According to the U.S. National Library of Medicine, hereditary fructose intolerance, a very serious condition wherein the body cannot digest fructose at all (and is usually diagnosed in infancy), is quite rare, affecting only 1 in 20,000 to 1 in 30,000 children worldwide annually. Fructose malabsorption, the inability of the intestines to absorb fructose properly, is not dangerous but may be unpleasant—and is much more common. Fructose malabsorption is thought to affect about 40 percent of people in the Western hemisphere.
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