Hummus

Hummus fails twice: chickpea GOS and garlic fructans, and the garlic is usually the larger problem of the two. A garlic-free hummus made from well-rinsed canned chickpeas is a genuinely different food, and it is one of the few dips worth making at home for that reason.

Two oligosaccharides at once: chickpea GOS and garlic fructans - one from each family this axis counts, in the same bowl. The garlic is usually the larger share. This is a PREPARED food, and that is the difficulty on this axis: the oligosaccharides come from whatever went in - onion, garlic, a legume, an added fibre - not from a single plant that could be looked up. The level follows work on fructooligosaccharides in prepared and preserved foods for that reason. The survey behind this ranks by PLANT FAMILY rather than by food: the Compositae highest in total fructooligosaccharide, then the Allium species. A prepared food takes its place from whichever of those went into it - onion and garlic are Allium, artichoke and chicory are Compositae - and the survey names no prepared food itself.

Hummus is blended chickpea kept open in the fridge, and unlike pesto it has no salt, acid or oil layer to slow anything down - it is a moist, low-acid paste, which is the condition the bacteria that make histamine prefer. Shop-bought tubs carry preservatives for exactly this reason; a homemade one does not, and lasts days rather than weeks.

Hummus gets little salicylate from the chickpeas; the lemon juice, garlic and often paprika or cumin on top are what bring it to this level. A plain, unspiced version is markedly lower.

Hummus is chickpeas and tahini, and both are higher than this on their own. What brings it down is the lemon, oil and water blended in - a dip is mostly not chickpea.

Hummus is chickpeas and tahini, and both carry oxalate - sesame more than the chickpea. What holds it down is the rest of the jar: lemon, oil and water make up much of it, and the lemon brings citrate, which works against stone formation. Quinteros measured soluble oxalate in beans, chickpeas and lentils and found that every cooking method reduces it — the loss going into the water rather than disappearing.