The FODMAP diet was developed in 2005 by researchers at Monash University in Australia. Her research showed that certain carbohydrates (sugars) in our diet that are poorly or not absorbed in the gut can cause symptoms in people with irritable bowel syndrome. Carbohydrates are fermentable oligosaccharides, disaccharides, monosaccharides and polyoles, or FODMAP for short. These are in turn subdivided into fructans (or FOS), galactans (or GOS), lactose, fructose, mannitol and sorbitol.

The research team then began testing as many foods as possible for the presence of these FODMAPs. All of her results were recorded on Monash University's FODMAP diet app. More than 800 products are included in this app and new products are added regularly. Food items are also sometimes retested and adjusted in the app.

If you follow the FODMAP diet, you are highly recommended to buy this app. It only costs you around 9 euros once in the App Store or Play Store. With the app you always have an up-to-date list. The app is regularly updated automatically. It also contains many delicious recipes and you can also keep a diary during the reintroduction phase. 

traffic light system

After purchasing the app, click “Food Guide” on the home screen. Now you can see the list of tested products. You can select a specific group, e.g. B. "Vegetables". You can also enter a search term yourself in the search bar at the top of the screen. Just look at the example below.

In the example, I entered the search term "apricot" in the search bar at the top of the screen. You can now see that a kind of traffic light system is used. The large dots indicate whether a regular serving size product is low-FODMAP (green), moderate (orange), or high (red) FODMAPs. Apricots therefore contain a small amount of FODMAPs at 16 grams, a moderate amount of FODMAPs (polyol - sorbitol) at 25 grams and a lot of FODMAPs at 70 grams.

As you can see, Monash University works with standard portion sizes.

During the elimination and reintroduction phase of the diet, Monash University recommends opting primarily for the green portion sizes of a product. The orange portion sizes should be limited and the red portion sizes should be avoided. Once you've completed the reintroduction phase and know which FODMAP groups bother you and which don't or less, you can also try the orange or sometimes even the red amounts. You can then activate a filter in the app to personalize the portion sizes. For example, if you have no complaints after consuming products with sorbitol, you can switch sorbitol to green in the app. Click the question mark at the top right of the app's home screen for more information.