Garlic

Why garlic is rated high

Garlic is High FODMAP at 1 clove (3g), and it is one of the very few foods where even the smallest tested amount lands firmly in the high range. The driver is fructans, which garlic stores in unusually concentrated form, so a single clove carries what a good deal more of most other foods would. The ladder has no low rung and no moderate rung: 1 clove (3g) is the only tested serving and it is high, so cutting back to less garlic is not a strategy the data supports. Roasting, frying, slow cooking and freezing do not help either, because heat does not break fructans down.

What changes your risk

• Infused oil is the real answer Fructans dissolve in water and do not dissolve in oil. Garlic infused oil therefore carries the flavour across with none of the fructans, provided no solid garlic pieces are left sitting in the oil. This is the one genuine substitution that gives back the actual taste rather than approximating it.
• Whole cloves are not safer than minced Some recipes say to add a whole clove and fish it out before serving. The fructans are water soluble, so they leach straight into the stock, sauce or soup the clove is simmering in, and removing the clove leaves them behind in the pot.
• Powders and salts are the same food Garlic powder, garlic salt, garlic granules and dehydrated garlic are garlic with the water removed, which concentrates what is left. Onion powder and onion salt carry fructans in exactly the same way.
• Labels are where it hides Stock cubes, stock powder, gravy granules, bouillon, most spice blends, marinades, dressings, pasta sauces, curry pastes, crisps and savoury snacks routinely list garlic or garlic powder. The words to look for on a label are garlic, garlic powder, onion, onion powder, dehydrated vegetables and vegetable powder.
• Serving size is not a lever here With only one tested serving and that serving already high, there is no smaller amount of garlic the published data can call low. The flavour has to come from somewhere else.

Swaps

Garlic infused oil comes first, because it delivers the flavour itself rather than a substitute for it: use it where a recipe says to soften garlic in oil at the start, and use it to finish a dish for a fresh hit. Beyond the oil, chives, the green tops of spring onions and the green leaves of leek bring the savoury allium note, and asafoetida powder gives cooked dishes a depth close to fried garlic and onion, though it is worth checking the tin, since some asafoetida is blended with wheat flour. Add black pepper, fresh ginger, fresh chilli, smoked paprika, lemon zest and fresh herbs for the rest of the base. What is not a swap: onion of any colour, shallot, leek bulb, the white part of spring onion, onion powder, garlic powder, onion salt, stock cubes and most supermarket spice blends, all of which carry the same fructans under a different name.

How to lower the load

Set the kitchen up so garlic never needs to be the base. Keep a bottle of garlic infused oil next to the stove and use it as the default cooking oil, and keep a second bottle unheated for dressings. If a bought oil has cloves floating in it, it is the wrong product, because solid pieces sitting in the oil put water soluble fructans back into it. Buy leeks and spring onions for the green parts, which are the ones you can use, and keep the white bulb out of your pan. When ordering, asking for no garlic often fails quietly, since the sauce, the stock and the marinade were made hours earlier, so it is more reliable to order plainly cooked food, meat, fish, rice or potatoes with oil, salt and pepper, and add flavour from your own oil at home.

Common questions

how much garlic is low fodmap

None. The only tested serving is 1 clove (3g) and it is High FODMAP on fructans, so there is no smaller amount of garlic that the published data rates as low.

is garlic infused oil low fodmap

Yes, because fructans dissolve in water and not in oil, so the flavour transfers into the oil while the fructans stay behind. The oil needs to be free of solid garlic pieces.

can i take the garlic clove out before serving

No. The fructans are water soluble and leach into the sauce or stock while the clove cooks, so lifting the clove out afterwards leaves them in the dish.

is garlic powder ok on a low fodmap diet

Garlic powder is dried garlic, so it carries the same fructans in concentrated form. Onion powder, garlic salt and most stock cubes and spice blends are the same problem on a label.