Grains and FODMAPs: 30 foods rated

Barley carries more fructan than wheat, and longer chains with it. It reaches the diet by two routes that look unrelated: pearl barley in soup, and malt - so barley malt extract, malt vinegar and beer all trace back here.

Rye is the fructan-richest of the everyday cereals as they are actually eaten, which is as bread: it measured above wheat, and barley was not among the breads tested. That is also why it is sold as a fibre-rich bread: the same chains that ferment badly here are the ones the label counts as fibre. Traditional rye sourdough, fermented long enough, measures lower than the fast-risen version. Whelan puts a number on the rank: measured as bread, rye came out the richest of those tested, 1.94 grams of fructan per hundred against 0.61 at the bottom of the range.

• Whelan K et al., Int J Food Sci Nutr 62:5 (2011) 498-503, fructan measured in wheat, rye and gluten-free breads

Rye bread is the richest bread on this axis, and it was measured rather than ranked by reputation: across breads bought at retail, fructan ran 0.61 to 1.94 g per 100 g and RYE BREAD CAME OUT HIGHEST at 1.94 - about twice a wheat loaf. A second survey, reporting per portion as eaten rather than per hundred grams, put dark rye bread at 0.60 g a serving. The two agree on the direction and disagree on nothing: they are measuring different units.

• Whelan K. et al., Int J Food Sci Nutr 62:5 (2011) 498-503, fructan measured in wheat, rye and gluten-free breads
• Biesiekierski J. et al., J Hum Nutr Diet 24:2 (2011) 154-176, fructans and galacto-oligosaccharides per portion as eaten in 55 grain products

Wheat is high here because of fructans, which live in the grain and have nothing to do with gluten. That distinction decides what helps: a gluten-free label does not lower the fructans of a food that never claimed to be wheat-free, and a wheat food eaten in a small portion may pass where a large one does not. Across the bread aisle the brand decides more than the type, gluten-free loaves included. One figure puts this in proportion, and it is about the diet rather than the plant: in a survey of more than 15,000 Americans, WHEAT SUPPLIED ABOUT 70 PER CENT of all the inulin and oligofructose eaten, and onions about 25 - two foods for roughly 95 per cent of the total, against a daily average of 2.6 g of inulin and 2.5 g of oligofructose. That share belongs to a particular cuisine, not to the crop: a diet built on chicory or artichoke would divide differently. Fructan measured PER PORTION AS EATEN, rather than per hundred grams, changes which wheat food matters: across 55 grain products couscous came out highest at 1.12 g a portion, ahead of wheat-free muesli at 0.96 and dark rye bread at 0.60, with oats at 0.11 and rice at zero. A portion is what a person eats; a hundred grams is a laboratory convenience.

• Whelan K et al., Int J Food Sci Nutr 62:5 (2011) 498-503, fructan measured in wheat, rye and gluten-free breads
• Moshfegh A.J. et al., J Nutr 129:7 Suppl (1999) 1407S-1411S, inulin and oligofructose in the diets of Americans
• Biesiekierski J. et al., J Hum Nutr Diet 24:2 (2011) 154-176, fructans and galacto-oligosaccharides per portion as eaten in 55 grain products

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.

• Biesiekierski J. et al., J Hum Nutr Diet 24:2 (2011) 154-176, fructans and galacto-oligosaccharides per portion as eaten in 55 grain products across 55 grain products

Muesli measures high for a breakfast cereal: wheat-free muesli came out at 0.96 g of fructan per portion as eaten, second of the 55 grain products in that survey and close behind couscous at 1.12. WHEAT-FREE is the version measured, which is the point - taking the wheat out did not take the fructans out, because the dried fruit and the other grains carry their own. Rolled oats alone sit at 0.11 in the same table.

• Biesiekierski J. et al., J Hum Nutr Diet 24:2 (2011) 154-176, fructans and galacto-oligosaccharides per portion as eaten in 55 grain products

Vermicelli is the case where the name tells you nothing. Rice vermicelli is low here; wheat vermicelli is not; and both are sold under the same word in the same aisle. The ingredient list is the only way to tell them apart, and it is a one-word check. Rice came out at 0 g of fructan a portion in the survey of 55 grain products, the only one to do so, and rice vermicelli is that grain in another shape. Wheat vermicelli is the Italian kind, and it behaves like any wheat pasta; the rice kind is the staple of Southeast Asian soups and salads, and the two sit at opposite ends of this axis under one word.

• Biesiekierski J et al., J Hum Nutr Diet 24 (2011) 154-176, fructans and galacto-oligosaccharides per portion as eaten

Vital wheat gluten is the protein washed out of wheat dough, and washing is done with water - which is exactly what dissolves fructans. That is why it sits below the grain it came from despite being pure wheat. It is still wheat, and it is added to bread precisely to make it more elastic, so it usually arrives inside a flour product anyway. This food is not among the 55 grain products behind this axis's per-portion figures, so its level is a placing and not a measurement.

• Biesiekierski J et al., J Hum Nutr Diet 24 (2011) 154-176, fructans and galacto-oligosaccharides per portion as eaten

Brown rice is the lowest-fructan cereal there is, and the figure is not a comparison but a floor: in a survey measuring fructan per portion as eaten across 55 grain products, rice came out at 0 g. Nothing else in that table reached zero. Wholegrain rice keeps the bran, which changes the fibre and not the fructan.

• Biesiekierski J. et al., J Hum Nutr Diet 24:2 (2011) 154-176, fructans and galacto-oligosaccharides per portion as eaten in 55 grain products across 55 grain products

Cornmeal is degermed maize - the germ that held most of what little it had is milled out. It is not in the survey behind the FODMAP grain figures either: 55 products were measured and maize meal was not one of them, so the level is read from what degerming removes rather than from a published figure.

• Biesiekierski J. et al., J Hum Nutr Diet 24:2 (2011) 154-176, fructans and galacto-oligosaccharides per portion as eaten in 55 grain products across 55 grain products

Durum wheat has a measured figure through the food it becomes: couscous is durum semolina, and it came out highest of the 55 grain products surveyed at 1.12 g of fructan per portion as eaten. The grain itself was not measured separately, so what is known here is what the semolina does.

• Biesiekierski J. et al., J Hum Nutr Diet 24:2 (2011) 154-176, fructans and galacto-oligosaccharides per portion as eaten in 55 grain products across 55 grain products

Khorasan is an ancient wheat and no lower in fructan than the modern one - the age of a variety is not a property this axis responds to. It was not measured in the survey behind these grain figures, so the level follows durum and bread wheat rather than a number of its own.

• Biesiekierski J. et al., J Hum Nutr Diet 24:2 (2011) 154-176, fructans and galacto-oligosaccharides per portion as eaten in 55 grain products across 55 grain products

Oats carry fructans, which is easy to miss because the grain itself is so often treated as the safe one. Biesiekierski measured 0.11 g of fructan per portion as eaten — small, and not zero.

• Biesiekierski J.R. et al., J Hum Nutr Diet 24 (2011) 154–176, fructans and short-chain carbohydrates in 55 grains, breads and pulses, reported in grams per portion as eaten

Oat fibre is the hull, not the groat: cellulose rather than fructan, which is why it reads lower than the oats it comes from. The survey behind this axis's grain figures measured oats at 0.11 g per portion and did not measure the hull at all, so that 0.11 is the ceiling for this product rather than its value.

• Biesiekierski J. et al., J Hum Nutr Diet 24:2 (2011) 154-176, fructans and galacto-oligosaccharides per portion as eaten in 55 grain products across 55 grain products

Quinoa is a seed rather than a cereal, and low. Worth saying plainly: it is NOT in the survey that gives this axis its grain figures - 55 products were measured and quinoa was not among them. Its level here rests on its being a seed with no fructan store, not on a number anyone has published for it.

• Biesiekierski J. et al., J Hum Nutr Diet 24:2 (2011) 154-176, fructans and galacto-oligosaccharides per portion as eaten in 55 grain products across 55 grain products

Rolled oats are low at half a cup and moderate above it, and the measured figure sits behind that: 0.11 g of fructan per portion as eaten, against 1.12 for couscous at the top of the same table. Oats are not a low-FODMAP food by concentration - they are one by the size of a sensible bowl.

• Biesiekierski J. et al., J Hum Nutr Diet 24:2 (2011) 154-176, fructans and galacto-oligosaccharides per portion as eaten in 55 grain products across 55 grain products

Spelt bread is low on this axis and it was measured, not assumed: 0.07 g of fructan per portion as eaten, second lowest of the 55 grain products in that survey and beaten only by rice. Rye bread, in the same table, carries 0.60 g and couscous 1.12 - so spelt is not a little better than the others, it is an order of magnitude apart. Note the unit: this is a PORTION as eaten, not a hundred grams, which is the number a meal is actually built from.

• Biesiekierski J. et al., J Hum Nutr Diet 24:2 (2011) 154-176, fructans and galacto-oligosaccharides per portion as eaten in 55 grain products

Wheat bran is concentrated fructan, and it is low here only because a spoonful is a spoonful. It was not measured in the survey behind this axis's grain figures - 55 products, bran not among them - so the level is a judgement about serving size and not a published number. Two tablespoons on cereal is a different food from bran baked into a loaf.

• Biesiekierski J. et al., J Hum Nutr Diet 24:2 (2011) 154-176, fructans and galacto-oligosaccharides per portion as eaten in 55 grain products across 55 grain products