Fructose is a type of sugar found naturally in fruits, honey, and some vegetables. It's what makes an apple taste sweet or gives honey its characteristic sweetness. Your body can use fructose for energy, just like other sugars, but it processes fructose differently than the sugar you might sprinkle on cereal (which is called sucrose).

Scientists classify fructose as a simple sugar or monosaccharide, meaning it's already in its simplest form and doesn't need to be broken down before your body can absorb it. When you eat a peach or drink orange juice, you're getting fructose along with fiber, vitamins, and other nutrients.

Food manufacturers also add fructose to many processed foods and soft drinks, often in the form of high-fructose corn syrup. This concentrated sweetener contains more fructose than you'd typically get from eating whole fruits. While fructose from an orange comes packaged with beneficial fiber that slows down how your body absorbs it, fructose in soda arrives without that natural packaging, which is why nutritionists encourage eating whole fruit rather than drinking fruit juice or soda.