Couscous

Couscous is notable for gluten, FODMAPs, oligosaccharides and oxalates. Clear on histamine, tyramine, salicylate, sucrose, lactose, sorbitol, fructose and nickel.

Yes — Couscous is high in gluten. Couscous is not a grain: it is pasta, rolled from durum semolina and steamed. That is worth knowing because it sits in the grain aisle beside rice and quinoa, and because the gluten-free versions made from maize or rice look identical in the packet.

Couscous contains moderate levels of FODMAPs. Couscous is durum wheat, and it came out HIGHEST of the 55 grain products measured for fructan per portion as eaten: 1.12 g a serving, ten times rolled oats and sixteen times spelt bread. The semolina is milled from the endosperm, so the fructan is not in a husk anyone can remove.

Couscous contains moderate levels of oligosaccharides. Couscous is durum wheat semolina rolled into grains, so the fructans are wheat fructans — measured at 1.12 g per portion as eaten, the highest of the fifty-five grain products surveyed, and above the pasta made from the same semolina - and it is steamed rather than boiled, which leaches less than pasta water does. The level reflects a small serving; a couscous dish is rarely a small serving.

Couscous contains only low levels of oxalates. Couscous is rolled durum semolina, so what it carries on this axis turns on one thing: whether that semolina was refined or wholemeal. Oxalate in wheat is concentrated in the outer layers of the grain, so it goes with the bran — and the study of cereal products that names couscous puts it among the whole grain durum products it found comparably high to whole grain wheat's 53.3 to 76.6 mg per 100 g. The pale couscous on most shelves is made from refined semolina, with most of that bran milled away, so the packet decides which of the two foods is in the bowl. Amounts vary by brand and recipe, so always check the label of the exact product.