Carob

Why carob is rated moderate

Carob comes from the pod of a legume tree, and it brings Fructans, which put carob at moderate overall. The ladder climbs: about 1 tablespoon (8g) reads LOW, larger portions read MODERATE, and much larger portions read HIGH. Moderate is the answer to carry away. A restrained amount of carob sits at the bottom of that climb, but the gap between the bottom rung and the top is small enough that carob is one of the ingredients most able to tip a meal over on its own.

What changes your risk

• The climb itself This is the whole story for carob. Keep to about 1 tablespoon (8g) and it reads LOW, larger portions read MODERATE, and much larger portions read HIGH. Nothing else you do to it moves the level as much as how much of it goes in.
• Stacking with other fructan foods Carob shares its FODMAP group with a long list of baking staples. Wheat or rye flour, and inulin or chicory root fibre, all pull on the same group, so a carob bake built on any of them climbs faster than the carob alone suggests.
• What it is stirred into Carob rarely arrives on its own. A carob drink made with milk, a bar sweetened with dried fruit paste, or a blend bulked out with chicory root fibre all add load from the other ingredients, so the finished product can sit higher than plain carob powder at the same amount.
• Water is not a lever here Fructans are water-soluble, which is why legumes that are canned, then drained and rinsed, run lower than the same legume boiled from dried. Carob powder is used dry in baking and stirred straight into drinks, so there is no liquid to pour away and nothing leaches out.
• Heat changes nothing Baking, roasting and blending do not destroy FODMAPs, so a carob cake carries what went into the batter. Splitting a batch across the day rather than eating it in one sitting keeps a single sitting's total lower than stacking it.

Swaps

When the role is a cocoa-like flavour in baking or a warm drink, plain cocoa powder fills it without carob's fructans, and dark chocolate in a restrained amount plays a similar part. For sweetness and body, maple syrup, table sugar and rice malt syrup are the honest choices. What will not solve the problem is reaching for wheat, rye, or inulin or chicory root fibre, which carry the same fructans, so none of them is a way around carob. Carob chips and carob bars are not a smaller version of carob powder either, since they usually bring other ingredients with them.

How to lower the load

Treat carob as a flavour note rather than the bulk of a recipe, and keep it to about 1 tablespoon (8g) if you want it at the low end of the ladder. When baking, work out how much carob goes into each finished portion rather than how much goes into the bowl, because about 1 tablespoon (8g) per piece in the tin can become a larger portion once the tray is cut generously. Store the powder sealed and dry so it stays loose and easy to sift thinly, and read the ingredients on carob drinks, bars and baking blends for chicory root fibre, inulin, wheat flour or legume flours, which push the whole product up without changing the carob content at all.

Common questions

is carob low fodmap

Carob is MODERATE overall, a portion to respect rather than a food to relax about. On the ladder about 1 tablespoon (8g) reads LOW, larger portions read MODERATE, and much larger portions read HIGH.

how much carob can i eat

Keep to about 1 tablespoon (8g) for the LOW rung, since larger portions read MODERATE and much larger portions read HIGH.

is carob high in fructans

Carob carries Fructans, which come from its origin as the pod of a legume tree. That is why it sits at moderate overall and climbs to HIGH at much larger portions.

can i have carob on the elimination phase

Carob is a moderate food, so it is one to portion carefully during elimination rather than use freely, and about 1 tablespoon (8g) is the only rung that reads LOW. Tolerance is individual, and reintroduction is worked through with a dietitian.