Lettuce

Low FODMAP

By Michael EisenwasserUpdated October 6, 2026

Serving sizes

Lettuce changes rating with portion size. These are the amounts tested in the literature behind our ratings.

About 1½ cups (75g) Low
Larger portions Moderate
Much larger portions High

Fructans

Lettuce is Low FODMAP at about 1½ cups (75g), a crisp base for salads and wraps.

1½ cups (75g) of lettuce is low.
Fructans build only at larger portions, reaching moderate and then high at much larger portions.

Use it as a crisp base for salads, wraps and sandwiches, and layer on other low FODMAP favorites.

Why lettuce is rated low

Lettuce is low at about 1½ cups (75g), and it takes a larger pile to change that: larger portions are moderate and much larger portions are high. Lettuce is mostly water and fibre, and the fructans in it only build as the amount of leaf grows. In practice what tips a salad from comfortable to uncomfortable is usually everything else in the bowl rather than the leaves.

What changes your risk

Serving size About 1½ cups (75g) is low, larger portions are moderate and much larger portions are high. A side salad base sits in the low range, so keep the lettuce to a normal handful rather than making it a huge bowl of leaves.
The dressing This is where most lettuce trouble starts. Creamy dressings, caesar, ranch and vinaigrettes built on a stock base very often contain onion, garlic, or onion and garlic powder. The troublesome parts of garlic are water soluble and do not dissolve into oil, so garlic infused oil with vinegar gives you the flavour without them, as long as no solid garlic is sitting in the bottle.
The rest of the plate A low rating is per serving, not per meal. Lettuce brings very little on its own, but a salad stacked with several vegetables, a dressing, croutons and a topping adds up to one combined FODMAP load eaten in one sitting, and that total is what a sensitive gut meets.
Bagged salad mixes A bag sold as salad is rarely only lettuce. Mixes carry other leaves, and kits add dressing sachets, croutons and crunchy toppings that are their own ingredients with their own labels worth reading.
Wilting and braising Heat does not destroy FODMAPs, so cooked lettuce is not a lower FODMAP lettuce. What cooking does change is volume: leaves collapse, so a cooked pile can easily have started as far more leaf than it looks.

What else works

Lettuce is genuinely one of the easier salad bases, and it sits alongside other low choices that fill the same crunchy, bulky role: cucumber, carrot, green beans and bok choy all work in a bowl or a wrap at a normal serve. The lookalikes worth separating out are the bitter chicory family leaves such as radicchio, which have their own serves rather than inheriting lettuce's. Dressings and toppings are the real risk: skip anything built on onion or garlic, and skip salad toppers or fibre boosters made with inulin or chicory root fibre, which are not a lettuce problem but will quickly become a meal problem.

How to keep it low

Buy whole heads rather than kits where you can, since a head is just lettuce and a kit is a list of ingredients. Wash and dry the leaves properly, then store them loosely in a container with a dry paper towel to soak up moisture so they stay crisp for the week. Build the bowl from the leaves up, so you can see what else is going in on top. For dressing, keep a bottle of garlic infused oil and a good vinegar within reach and whisk them together rather than reaching for a jar. When you are eating out, ask for the dressing on the side and for the salad plain, which also lets you leave off the croutons and the crunchy onion pieces that often arrive scattered across the top.

Common questions

how much lettuce is low fodmap

About 1½ cups (75g) is low. Lettuce reaches moderate at larger portions and high at much larger portions, so a normal side salad base is the amount to plan around.

can i eat lettuce during the elimination phase

Yes, lettuce is low at about 1½ cups (75g), which makes it one of the more straightforward salad bases during the strict phase. The thing to watch is the dressing and the toppings rather than the leaves.

is romaine or iceberg lettuce different

The serves here cover lettuce as a single entry, without separate figures by variety, so there is no basis for rating one type against another. What reliably differs between salads is what goes on top of them.

why does my salad bother me if lettuce is low fodmap

Usually because of what is with it. Dressings, croutons and seasoning blends frequently contain onion and garlic, and several low servings eaten together in one bowl still add up to one combined load for that meal.

Learn more

Where this rating comes from

Lettuce is rated from published lab measurements of its FODMAP content, using the low, moderate and high cutoffs of Varney et al. (2017).

Feedback sent through the FODMAP Foods app has led to changes in this list.

See our full rating method →

Sources

Fructan and free fructose content of common Australian vegetables and fruit. Muir et al. (2007), J. Agricultural and Food Chemistry 55(16):6619-6627.
Measurement of short-chain carbohydrates in common Australian vegetables and fruits by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). Muir et al. (2009), J. Agricultural and Food Chemistry 57(2):554-565.
Quantification of fructans, galacto-oligosaccharides and other short-chain carbohydrates in processed grains and cereals. Biesiekierski et al. (2011), J. Human Nutrition and Dietetics 24(2):154-176.
Dietary sorbitol and mannitol: food content and distinct absorption patterns between healthy individuals and patients with irritable bowel syndrome. Yao et al. (2014), J. Human Nutrition and Dietetics 27(Suppl 2):263-275.
FODMAPs: food composition, defining cutoff values and international application. Varney et al. (2017), J. Gastroenterology and Hepatology 32(Suppl 1):53-61. Supplies the low, moderate and high cutoffs used on this page.