What Is the FODMAP Diet?
2. High FODMAP food groups
There are four types of poorly absorbed short-chain carbohydrates. According to their nature, four types of high FODMAP food groups are used in the low FODMAP diet. The first group is foods that are high in oligosaccharides, which are molecules that contain 3 to 10 linked simple sugars or monosaccharide units. Two important types of oligosaccharides are fructans (the simple sugar involved is fructose) and galactooligosaccharides or GOS (the simple sugars involved are galactose). Another high FODMAP food group is made up of disaccharides, which are sugars formed by two simple sugars.
Foods containing a disaccharide known as lactose (i.e. cow milk), are classified as high FODMAP. Also, monosaccharides (fructose), make up another FODMAP food group. They are the simplest form of sugar and the most basic unit of carbohydrates. Finally, polyols make up the last group of high FODMAP foods. They are natural sugar alcohols found in several fruits and vegetables. However, they can also be added to commercial products (i.e. xylitol) as sweeteners (i.e. chewing gums, sugar-free products for diabetics).
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