Low FODMAP Grocery List: What to Buy (and Skip) for Elimination Week 1

Michael Eisenwasser 8 min read

The first real test of the low-FODMAP diet isn't the cooking. It's the grocery run the day before you start. Most people arrive with a vague idea of "fresh, simple, no onion or garlic" and leave an hour later with a cart full of things they'll find out on day three are high FODMAP.

This list is organized the way a store is organized, produce, proteins, dairy, grains, pantry, condiments, with notes on what to put in the cart, what to leave on the shelf, and the hidden offenders that catch almost everyone on week one. Use it alongside the Monash FODMAP app for exact serving sizes, which are what actually decide whether something is low FODMAP.

How to use this list

Three rules before you start pushing the cart.

Shop the perimeter first. Fresh produce, meat and fish, eggs, and dairy swaps are mostly low FODMAP at sensible serves with no labels to decode. The hidden onion and garlic live in the interior aisles.

Buy for four days, not a month. Elimination runs 2 to 6 weeks, but your tastes and meal ideas change fast. Restock midweek and keep produce from dying in the crisper drawer.

Look for the Monash FODMAP Certified logo, a green thumb-up symbol. Monash tests those products in their lab and validates the serving size. Certified items take the guesswork out of sauces, snack bars, and pantry staples.

For more on how the phases fit together, see the low-FODMAP elimination phase guide.

Produce

Most of the produce aisle is fine; a handful of items quietly carry big FODMAP loads. Stock a small rotation so you don't burn out on the same three vegetables.

Put in the cart (in green-light serves): carrots, cucumber, bell peppers (red or yellow), spinach, kale, lettuce, green beans, zucchini, eggplant, bok choy, tomato, potato, parsnip, turnip, radish, scallion greens, leek greens (dark tops only), chives, ginger. Fruits: unripe banana, strawberries, blueberries, raspberries, kiwi, pineapple, oranges, grapes, cantaloupe, passionfruit.

Leave on the shelf: onion, garlic, shallot, scallion whites, leek whites, cauliflower, fresh button and portobello mushrooms, asparagus, artichoke, most dried beans (black, red, baked). Fruits: apple, pear, mango, watermelon, cherries, peach, nectarine, plum, dried fruit, ripe banana in large serves.

Mushroom note: fresh button and portobello are high in mannitol, but canned button (mannitol leaches into the brine) and oyster mushrooms are low FODMAP. If you want mushrooms week one, go canned or oyster.

Quiet traps: avocado and broccoli are both "low at a small serve" (avocado at a small slice; broccoli heads higher than stalks). Sugar snap peas are also limit-serve, fine at a small amount, high at a handful. See the low-FODMAP fruit list and low-FODMAP vegetable list for exact sizes.

Proteins

Every plain, unseasoned animal protein is naturally FODMAP-free. Meat, poultry, fish, and seafood contain no carbohydrates, which means no fermentable carbs. Eggs are the same. This is the easiest aisle in the store.

Put in the cart: plain chicken, beef, pork, lamb, turkey, fish, shrimp, eggs, firm tofu, tempeh, canned lentils (rinsed, small serves), canned chickpeas (rinsed, small serves).

Leave on the shelf: anything marinated, brined, breaded, pre-seasoned, or "flavored." Sausages, seasoned deli meats, teriyaki-glazed salmon, rotisserie chicken from the hot case, meatballs with filler. The protein itself is fine; what's added to it almost always isn't.

The hidden offender here is "natural flavors" or "spice blend" on a meat label. These vague phrases often include onion and garlic powder (both high-fructan in tiny amounts), but they can cover plenty of other things too, the problem is you don't know. Buy plain cuts and season at home with salt, pepper, and garlic-infused oil. Dried beans from scratch are usually high FODMAP at normal serves; canned-and-rinsed works because rinsing leaches off a meaningful amount of GOS.

Dairy (and dairy swaps)

Lactose is the D in FODMAP. The fix isn't to cut dairy entirely; it's to swap lactose-containing dairy for lactose-free versions and to lean on hard aged cheeses, which are naturally very low in lactose because most of it drains off with the whey during cheesemaking and the rest gets broken down by bacteria during aging.

Put in the cart: lactose-free milk, lactose-free yogurt (plain, read the label), hard aged cheeses (cheddar, parmesan, swiss), mozzarella and feta in small serves, brie, camembert, butter, ghee.

Plant milks that work: almond milk (unsweetened), macadamia milk, hemp milk, rice milk (small serves). Oat milk is complicated enough that it gets its own post, see is oat milk low FODMAP before you buy.

Leave on the shelf: regular cow's milk, regular yogurt, soft cheeses with added milk solids (ricotta, cottage cheese, cream cheese in large serves), most ice cream, condensed milk, buttermilk, soy milk made from whole soybeans (soy milk from soy protein is fine).

The hidden offender: yogurt with added inulin, chicory root, FOS, or "prebiotic fiber." These are fructans, and even small amounts push yogurt into high-FODMAP territory regardless of the lactose-free claim on the front. Monash flags prebiotic-fortified products specifically, they're sold as gut-healthy, but inulin is one of the highest fructan concentrations in the food supply. The rule is plain milk plus live cultures, nothing else.

Grains and bread

The goal here is breads and grains without wheat-based fructans and without added inulin or chicory root.

Put in the cart: white rice, brown rice, quinoa, rolled oats, gluten-free oats, rice noodles, 100% buckwheat noodles, polenta, cornmeal, rice cakes, corn tortillas. Breads: traditional long-fermented sourdough (spelt or wheat), gluten-free bread (read the label).

Leave on the shelf: regular wheat bread, whole wheat pasta, couscous, semolina pasta, rye bread, barley, most packaged granola, anything labeled "added fiber" or "prebiotic."

Hidden offender: gluten-free breads and wraps often add chicory root, inulin, or soy/legume flours as binders. "Gluten-free" and "low FODMAP" aren't the same thing. Check the ingredient list every time.

Sourdough is the useful exception. Long fermentation lets wild yeasts and bacteria break down much of the fructan in wheat flour, so traditionally made sourdough is often tolerated at a modest serve. The fast-rise "sourdough-style" loaves at most supermarkets don't ferment long enough to count. Look for bakery sourdough with a genuinely long rise or a Monash-certified loaf, and confirm your serving size in the app, it varies by slice thickness.

Pantry and condiments

This is where elimination week one actually goes wrong. Stocks, sauces, dressings, marinades, and seasoning packets are almost all built on an onion-garlic base.

Put in the cart: extra-virgin olive oil, garlic-infused olive oil (no solids; Monash-certified is safest), sesame oil, coconut oil, butter. Vinegars: white, red wine, rice, balsamic (small serves). Soy sauce, tamari, fish sauce, maple syrup, table sugar, salt, pepper, single-note dried herbs and spices (oregano, basil, thyme, rosemary, cumin, paprika, turmeric, coriander). Mustard (plain, no honey or garlic), mayonnaise (check label), peanut butter (100% peanuts, no inulin).

Leave on the shelf: regular chicken or vegetable stock, bouillon cubes, onion powder, garlic powder, "Italian seasoning" or other blends containing onion/garlic, most bottled salad dressings, most BBQ and teriyaki sauces, most ketchup (usually onion/garlic in the ingredient list, not just HFCS), honey, agave, sugar-free products sweetened with sorbitol/mannitol/xylitol/maltitol, regular pasta sauce (every jar has onion), hummus, tahini in large serves, cashews, pistachios.

The four offenders that catch almost everyone:

1. Stock and broth. The base of nearly every stock is onion. Buy a Monash-certified low-FODMAP stock or make your own with scallion greens and carrot, see the low-FODMAP chicken broth recipe.
2. "Natural flavors" and seasoning packets. Ramen, taco seasoning, ranch mix, poultry rub, anything in a foil envelope. Assume onion and garlic powder are in there until the label proves otherwise.
3. Protein bars and granola bars. Almost all contain chicory root, inulin, or "prebiotic fiber", the marketing hook that makes them high FODMAP. Monash-certified bars exist; default to those.
4. Prebiotic yogurts, kombuchas, and functional drinks. If the label says "prebiotic," "gut health fiber," or "fortified with chicory," it has inulin or FOS. Skip it.

Sugar-alcohol sweeteners are the last trap: anything ending in "-ol" (sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol, maltitol). Erythritol is often better tolerated but can still cause GI symptoms at higher doses, don't treat it as universally safe. These sweeteners show up in sugar-free gum, candy, keto baked goods, and "no added sugar" products. Maple syrup and table sugar are both low FODMAP in normal serves.

See is onion low FODMAP for the full onion-replacement playbook.

Don't stack your cart

The biggest week-one mistake isn't buying the wrong food, it's buying all the "low FODMAP at a small serve" foods and then piling them onto the same plate. Avocado, broccoli heads, sweet potato, canned chickpeas, almonds, and dark chocolate are each safe at their serving size. A salad topped with several of them at once is not. This is FODMAP stacking, and it's the most common reason a week-one meal triggers despite looking like a model low-FODMAP plate.

Buy variety, but portion one thing generously and the rest in small amounts. Spread the higher-risk items across different meals.

A workable week-one cart

A minimum-viable list: a dozen eggs, a pound of chicken, a pound of ground beef, rice, rolled oats, carrots, spinach, bell peppers, zucchini, strawberries, blueberries, unripe bananas, a block of cheddar, lactose-free milk, plain lactose-free yogurt, olive oil, garlic-infused olive oil, salt, pepper, a Monash-certified pasta sauce (or fresh tomatoes), maple syrup, and a loaf of genuine sourdough.

That's roughly four days of breakfast, lunch, and dinner with no decisions left to make at 6pm. Pair it with the 7-day low-FODMAP meal plan and week one is handled.

What to track from day one

Logging what you eat and how you feel is what turns elimination from a vibes-based experiment into real data. The FODMAP Tracker app is built for this, it knows FODMAP content and serving sizes so you don't have to look them up, and it correlates food with symptoms. The app is in development; join the waitlist below for early access.

Week one of elimination is mostly a shopping and logistics problem. Get the cart right and the rest gets meaningfully easier.

Track your symptoms and discover patterns with FODMAP Tracker. Includes a database of 1,000+ foods with FODMAP ratings.