Foods With Mannose

Mannose is a six-carbon sugar found in a variety of fruits and vegetables. This sugar is not found free in foods, but rather as part of polysaccharide chains attached to a variety of proteins. According to NYU Langone Medical Center, your body can make mannose from glucose, so there are no nutritional recommendations for this sugar 5.

Fruits

A variety of fruits contain high levels of mannose. These include:

• black currants
  
• red currants
  
• gooseberries
  
• cranberries
  
• cranberry juice
  
• tomatoes
  
• apples
  
• peaches
  
• oranges
  
• blueberries

It is also found in palm kernel, the edible oil from palm trees.

Vegetables

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Vegetables are also a good source of mannose. Mannose is also found in carob gum, the gum extracted from the carob plant, and in guar gum, the fiber from the seed of the guar plant. In the guar gum and carob plant, mannose is in the form of galactomannan, which are polymers of mannose and galactose.

Herbs and Spices

An herbal source of mannose is the aloe vera plant. Aloe vera contains acemannan, which is a polysaccharide chain of mannose molecules. Mannose is also found in cayenne pepper.

Beans and Legume Sources

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Mannose is found in fenugreek. Fenugreek are the small, yellowish brown, stony seeds from the pod of a bean-like plant. In fenugreek, mannose is in the form a galactomannan, a polysaccharide of mannose and galactose. Mannose is also found in soybeans, kidney beans and lima beans.

Processed Foods

Commercially manufactured ice-cream products contain mannose because of the presence of locus bean, or carob gum, and guar gum. Locus bean gum, or carob gum, is used in ice cream to improve texture and reduce melting. Because:

• locus bean gum
  
• or guar gum is also used in cream cheese
  
• processed fruits,
  
• salad dressings
  
• these foods also contain a certain degree of mannose
  
• usually in the form of mannose polysaccharides
  
• or galactomannans