Bean Sprout

Why bean sprout is rated low

Bean sprouts are low at any typical portion, with no FODMAP group building to a meaningful level, so there is no single carbohydrate pushing the number up. Sprouts are mostly water held in crisp cell walls, which is why a generous handful still sits comfortably in the low range while the mature beans they grew from do not. A normal helping through a stir fry, a bowl of pho or a salad roll needs no weighing. In practice the sprouts are rarely the risk on the plate: the sauce they arrive in usually is.

What changes your risk

• Serving size Bean sprouts are low at any typical portion, so the amount on your plate is not the thing to manage. Sprouts compress when they are tossed into a hot pan, so a raw handful looks like much less on the plate, but a normal helping, raw or cooked, stays in the low range.
• The sauce, not the sprout Bean sprouts almost always turn up in stir fries, pho, pad thai and spring rolls, and the base of those dishes is usually onion, garlic, a stock powder or a ready made sauce blend. Those ingredients carry far more FODMAP load than the sprouts do, so read the label on the sauce jar and cook the aromatics out of the recipe rather than trimming the vegetables.
• Canned sprouts want a drain and a rinse FODMAPs are water soluble, so anything that has leached out of canned sprouts is sitting in the liquid. Tip the can into a sieve, run cold water over the sprouts for a few seconds and shake them dry, instead of pouring the canning liquid into the pan with them.
• Stacking across the whole plate A low food does not cancel out the rest of the meal. A bowl that pairs sprouts with a pile of other vegetables, a wheat noodle base and a sweetened sauce adds up to a much bigger total FODMAP load than the sprouts alone, so look at everything in the bowl rather than one ingredient.
• Cooking does not remove anything Blanching, stir frying, freezing and blending do not destroy FODMAPs. Cooking leaves the sprouts as low as they were raw, so the ingredients cooked alongside them are what to judge.

What else works

Bean sprouts are already low at any typical portion, so the useful comparison is with what sits beside them. Cucumber, green beans, zucchini, bok choy and choy sum all bring the same fresh crunch or bulk to a stir fry or a salad roll and are low at a normal serve, and carrot works well shredded through the same dishes. The lookalike to be careful with is the bean the sprout came from: cooked mung beans, and chickpeas, lentils and kidney beans generally, are not low at ordinary servings, so a sprouted seed and a cooked legume are not interchangeable. The usual stir fry companions that are not low FODMAP swaps are onion of any colour, shallot, leek bulb, the white part of spring onion, garlic and mushroom. For the savoury depth garlic would give, garlic infused oil with no solid pieces left in it, the green tops of spring onions, chives or a pinch of asafoetida do the job honestly.

How to keep it low

Buy sprouts that snap rather than bend, with white stems and no slimy patches or sour smell, because they turn fast and a tired sprout is both unpleasant and short lived. Keep them in the fridge in a container lined with a paper towel, or submerged in cold water changed daily, and use them within a couple of days. There is no need to weigh them, since any typical portion is low. Add them in the final minute of cooking so they stay crunchy, and build the flavour on garlic infused oil, ginger, spring onion greens and a splash of soy or tamari rather than a ready made stir fry sauce. Ordering out, the sprouts are usually the least of it: ask for no onion and no garlic and for the sauce on the side, and add raw sprouts yourself at the table.

Common questions

how much bean sprouts can i eat on a low fodmap diet

Bean sprouts are low at any typical portion, so a normal helping in a stir fry, a bowl of pho or a salad needs no weighing. The sauce they are cooked in is the part to check.

are bean sprouts ok on the elimination phase

Yes, bean sprouts are low at any typical portion, with no FODMAP group building to a meaningful level. The part of the dish to watch during elimination is the sauce or stock they are cooked in, not the sprouts.

are canned bean sprouts low fodmap

Drain the can in a sieve and rinse the sprouts under cold running water before using them, because water soluble FODMAPs leach out into the canning liquid. The sprouts themselves are low at any typical portion, so leave the liquid behind and use them as you would fresh.

if bean sprouts are low are mung beans low too

No. The low rating applies to the sprouts, and cooked mung beans at ordinary servings are a different food that is not a low FODMAP swap for them.