Grains and oligosaccharides: 30 foods rated

Barley carries longer fructan chains than wheat, and more of them. Longer chains ferment further down the colon and more slowly, which changes the timing of the response rather than its size.

Rye holds more fructan than the other everyday cereals measured as bread, which is the same fact its label states as a high fibre content. Fructans are counted as dietary fibre - the health claim and the problem are the same molecule. 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

The fructans measured in rye bread ARE what this axis counts, so this level carries the same measurement as the FODMAP one rather than an inference: 1.94 g per 100 g, the highest of the breads tested, and 0.60 g per portion as eaten in a second survey. Fructans are the oligosaccharide of a cereal - there is no separate figure to look for.

• Whelan K. et al., Int J Food Sci Nutr 62:5 (2011) 498-503
• Biesiekierski J. et al., J Hum Nutr Diet 24:2 (2011) 154-176

Same reason as the FODMAP level: wheat fructans, which live in the grain and are unrelated to gluten. That is why removing gluten does not remove this - and why long sourdough fermentation, which feeds the fructans to the bacteria, does. 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.

• Moshfegh A.J. et al., J Nutr 129:7 Suppl (1999) 1407S-1411S, inulin and oligofructose in the diets of Americans

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.

• 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

The fructans measured in muesli ARE what this axis counts: 0.96 g per portion as eaten for the wheat-free version, second of the 55 grain products surveyed. The same study reports the raffinose family as most common in pulses rather than cereals, so what raises a muesli here is its fructan and its dried fruit, not a galacto-oligosaccharide.

• 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

Which chain is present depends on which vermicelli: wheat vermicelli carries fructans, rice vermicelli carries none. The word on the packet does not distinguish them and the ingredient list does.

Vital wheat gluten is washed with water, and fructans dissolve in water - so most of them left with the starch. What remains is a residue of the grain's chains rather than the grain's full load.

Brown rice keeps the bran, and the bran is where a cereal's fructan would be if rice had any. It does not - so wholegrain and white give the same answer here, which is unusual.

Maize carries very little fructan, which is why cornmeal is a staple of gluten-free and low-FODMAP baking alike. Polenta and cornbread are among the few starchy bases that stay low at a full serving. The cereal short-chain carbohydrate figures are the measured part.

• Biesiekierski J et al., J Hum Nutr Diet 24 (2011) 154-176, cereal short-chain carbohydrates

Durum is a wheat and carries wheat fructans, but it is milled into semolina and made into pasta - cooked in abundant water that is then poured away. The species is not what lowers it; the cooking method is.

Khorasan wheat is sold as an ancient grain that is easier to digest, and measurement does not support a large difference in fructan from modern wheat. It is wheat, and the level reflects a serving small enough to stay low rather than a property of the species.

Oat fructan is the oligosaccharide this axis asks about, so its answer agrees with the FODMAP one: 0.11 g per portion as eaten, less than wheat and more than rice.

• 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, and the hull is cellulose and beta-glucan - long chains that ferment slowly and evenly rather than the short oligosaccharide chains. Beta-glucan is the fibre oats are sold for, and it is not a FODMAP.

Quinoa is not a grass and not a cereal - it is a seed from the same family as spinach and beetroot, and it does not store fructans the way grasses do. That is why it works as a wheat replacement on this axis and not only on the gluten one.

Oats carry a small amount of fructan - less than wheat, more than rice - so the level is a serving-size answer rather than a categorical one. Half a cup dry is the usual line, and porridge made with a full cup crosses it.

The fructans measured in spelt bread ARE what this axis counts, so this level carries the same figure as the FODMAP one: 0.07 g per portion as eaten, second lowest of the 55 grain products surveyed. There is no separate oligosaccharide number to look for in a cereal - the fructan is 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

Wheat bran is the outer layer, and it carries fructans along with the fibre it is sold for. It stays low only because it is used by the spoonful - a serving of bran cereal is not a spoonful, and it answers differently.