Fruits and oligosaccharides: 75 foods rated

The fructans are what put the date on the FODMAP axis, and fructans are oligosaccharides - so the two levels have to agree. Two dates is around the usual limit, and the stickiness that makes them a baking staple is exactly what makes the portion creep.

• Muir J et al., J Agric Food Chem 55 (2007) and 57 (2009)

Raisins and sultanas are the same food, and they belong at the same place on this axis: dried grapes concentrate fructans, and fructans are oligosaccharides. What they do NOT concentrate is excess fructose, because the fresh grape's sugars are already balanced.

Sultana: same reason as the FODMAP level: dried grapes concentrate fructans, and it is the fructans rather than the sugar that decide this axis. A tablespoon is a lot of grapes, and the chains came with all of them.

Watermelon carries fructans as well as excess fructose, which is unusual for a fruit - most fruit brings sugar to this diet, not chains. The fructans are why the FODMAP level does not fall as far as the modest sugar content alone would suggest.

Blackcurrant brings a small amount of fructan alongside its sugars, and the products made from it - coulis, syrup, jam - concentrate many berries into one spoonful. The chains concentrate with everything else.

Tamarind carries more fructan than any other food in the twenty Prichard measured: 2.35 grams per hundred, above rye bread. What holds it down is the spoonful — it is a paste used to sour a dish, not a portion eaten on its own, and the figure is a content per hundred grams and not a threshold per serving.

• Prichard R et al., Int J Food Sci Nutr 67 (2016) 383-390, FODMAP content of foods commonly consumed by ethnic minority groups

Acorn squash is high on the FODMAP axis for mannitol, a polyol, and carries little in the way of chains. The two axes disagree here on purpose - what helps against a polyol is not what helps against an oligosaccharide.

Oranges carry a small amount of fructan, enough to register and not enough to matter at one fruit. Where it starts to count is the pith and the peel - marmalade and candied peel concentrate the part of the fruit nobody eats on its own. A blood orange is no different, and its deep colour comes from anthocyanins in the flesh rather than from anything on this axis.

• Muir J et al., J Agric Food Chem 55 (2007) and 57 (2009), short-chain carbohydrates in Australian fruit

Butternut squash carries a little fructan and rather more mannitol, and the FODMAP level follows the mannitol. A standard portion stays low here; it is the polyol, not the chains, that sets the serving limit.

Cantaloupe is the netted, orange-fleshed melon, sold in Australia as rockmelon. Muir found fructans in melon at between 0.21 and 0.46 g per 100 g across four fruits, without saying which melon was analysed. Melon is eaten by the bowl rather than the wedge, and that is what decides the amount.

• Muir J. et al., J Agric Food Chem 55 (2007) 6619-6627, total fructans in 60 vegetables and 43 fruits

Dried apricots are high on the FODMAP axis for sorbitol - a polyol - and carry almost no chains. This is the clearest case of the two axes separating: everything that makes dried apricot a problem belongs to the P of the acronym, not the O. Fruit oligosaccharides are the part of this axis least visible on a label: they are not sweetness and not fibre in the usual sense, and two fruits that taste alike can differ several-fold. The level follows measurements made on fruit specifically.

• Muir J. et al., J Agric Food Chem 55 (2007) and 57 (2009), and Jovanovic-Malinovska R. et al., Int J Food Prop 17 (2014), oligosaccharides in fruit

Galia melon is a cross of cantaloupe and honeydew, and sits between them here as it does in flavour. Muir detected fructans in melon without naming the variety, at 0.21 to 0.46 g per 100 g measured across four fruits. A wedge is a small amount of anything; it is the habit of eating melon in quantity, because it is mostly water, that moves it.

• Muir J. et al., J Agric Food Chem 55 (2007) 6619-6627, total fructans in 60 vegetables and 43 fruits

Goji berries carry a small amount of oligosaccharide, and they are eaten by the tablespoon rather than the handful. Their well-known polysaccharide content is a different, much longer molecule than the chains this axis counts. Fruit oligosaccharides are the part of this axis least visible on a label: they are not sweetness and not fibre in the usual sense, and two fruits that taste alike can differ several-fold. The level follows measurements made on fruit specifically.

• Muir J. et al., J Agric Food Chem 55 (2007) and 57 (2009), and Jovanovic-Malinovska R. et al., Int J Food Prop 17 (2014), oligosaccharides in fruit

Prichard measured 0.41 grams of fructan per hundred in the guava, with no galacto-oligosaccharide detected — the smallest of the five foods that carried anything. The fruit's larger problem is on the fructose axis, where it already sits high.

• Prichard R et al., Int J Food Sci Nutr 67 (2016) 383-390, FODMAP content of foods commonly consumed by ethnic minority groups

Honeydew melon has a smooth rind and pale green flesh, and is the one usually cut into the largest pieces. Muir measured fructans in melon at 0.21 to 0.46 g per 100 g across four fruits and does not say which melon it was. Portion is the whole question on this axis for a fruit at that level: the fructan per hundred grams is small, and the hundred grams rarely stops there.

• Muir J. et al., J Agric Food Chem 55 (2007) 6619-6627, total fructans in 60 vegetables and 43 fruits

Jackfruit's FODMAP level comes from its sugars rather than from chains, and the fruit carries little oligosaccharide either ripe or green. Which jackfruit is on the plate changes the sugar answer and not this one. Fruit oligosaccharides are the part of this axis least visible on a label: they are not sweetness and not fibre in the usual sense, and two fruits that taste alike can differ several-fold. The level follows measurements made on fruit specifically.

• Muir J. et al., J Agric Food Chem 55 (2007) and 57 (2009), and Jovanovic-Malinovska R. et al., Int J Food Prop 17 (2014), oligosaccharides in fruit

The fructans that put longan on the FODMAP axis are what this one counts too, and the figure is the same: low but DETECTABLE, in a range of 0.21 to 0.46 g per 100 g shared with white peach, persimmon and melon. A fruit measured in that range is not a fruit to read as free of them.

• Muir J. et al., J Agric Food Chem 55 (2007) 6619-6627, fructan and free fructose in 60 vegetables and 43 fruits

Nectarine's FODMAP level is sorbitol from the stone-fruit family and excess fructose, neither of which is a chain. Stone fruit as a group is low here and moderate to high there, which is worth knowing when a whole category seems to be off the list. Fruit oligosaccharides are the part of this axis least visible on a label: they are not sweetness and not fibre in the usual sense, and two fruits that taste alike can differ several-fold. The level follows measurements made on fruit specifically.

• Muir J. et al., J Agric Food Chem 55 (2007) and 57 (2009), and Jovanovic-Malinovska R. et al., Int J Food Prop 17 (2014), oligosaccharides in fruit

Orange is one of the few fruits that is low on every FODMAP family at once - no chains, no polyol, balanced sugars. It is the standard reference fruit on this diet for that reason, and the juice of two is not, because that is two fruits without the fibre. Fruit oligosaccharides are the part of this axis least visible on a label: they are not sweetness and not fibre in the usual sense, and two fruits that taste alike can differ several-fold. The level follows measurements made on fruit specifically.

• Muir J. et al., J Agric Food Chem 55 (2007) and 57 (2009), and Jovanovic-Malinovska R. et al., Int J Food Prop 17 (2014), oligosaccharides in fruit

Peach carries a small amount of fructan. Muir measured it in the white peach, among four fruits whose fructans fell between 0.21 and 0.46 g per 100 g — a range across the four rather than a value for any one, and the white peach is a single variety where this entry covers every kind. One peach is a modest amount at that level; a bowl of them is a different question.

• Muir J. et al., J Agric Food Chem 55 (2007) 6619-6627, total fructans in 60 vegetables and 43 fruits

The persimmon's FODMAP load is fructan, and a fructan is an oligosaccharide — the two axes are answering for the same molecule here. Muir measured it: persimmon is one of the four fruits he lists as carrying low but DETECTABLE fructans, in the range 0.21 to 0.46 grams per hundred, alongside longan, white peach and melon. Low but detectable is what Muir reports: a fructan that is present and small.

• Muir J. et al., J Agric Food Chem 55 (2007) 6619-6627, fructan and free fructose in 60 vegetables and 43 fruits

Sun-dried tomato is high on the FODMAP axis for concentrated fructose, not for chains - tomato carries barely any. The two axes disagree because drying multiplies sugars and there was almost nothing to multiply here. Fruit oligosaccharides are the part of this axis least visible on a label: they are not sweetness and not fibre in the usual sense, and two fruits that taste alike can differ several-fold. The level follows measurements made on fruit specifically.

• Muir J. et al., J Agric Food Chem 55 (2007) and 57 (2009), and Jovanovic-Malinovska R. et al., Int J Food Prop 17 (2014), oligosaccharides in fruit