Okra

Why okra is rated moderate

Okra carries fructans, and its tested servings sit unusually close together. At 1 cup (75g) it is moderate, and at 1⅛ cups (84g) it is high. That gap is smaller than the amount most people add to a bowl without thinking, which makes okra one of the least forgiving vegetables on a low FODMAP plate. There is no tested serving where it comes back low, so 1 cup (75g) is a portion to measure and stop at rather than a starting point. It also almost never arrives on its own: okra is a stew and curry vegetable, and the base it is cooked in usually does more damage than the pods do.

What changes your risk

• A very narrow serving band 1 cup (75g) is moderate and 1⅛ cups (84g) is high. There is barely any room between them, so okra has to be measured. Counting pods instead of measuring the cup will not give you a reliable answer, because pods vary enormously in size.
• What the dish is built on Gumbo, bhindi masala and most okra stews start with onion and garlic, and curry pastes and stock powders bring more of the same. Garlic infused oil gives the savoury base without the fructans as long as no solid pieces are left in it.
• Stacking fructans A moderate serving of okra plus other fructan carriers in the same meal adds up. Ordinary wheat bread or roti on the side, cabbage in the stew or beetroot in the salad are all the same subgroup arriving from different directions.
• Boiling and draining Fructans are water soluble, so boiling okra in plenty of water and pouring the water away takes some of them out. Frying, roasting, grilling and stewing do not, because nothing leaves the food, and in a stew the liquid is served with it.
• Canned, pickled and battered forms Some fructans leach into the canning or pickling liquid, which is a reason to drain rather than pour the jar in, but there is no separate tested serving for drained okra, so the servings above are still the measure. Fried okra is usually coated in wheat flour, which adds fructans that have nothing to do with the vegetable.

Swaps

If you want a green vegetable that holds its shape in a stew or a curry, green beans are the closest honest swap and they stay low, with zucchini and bell pepper filling out the pot. For the body and thickness that okra is really doing the work for, a roux made with gluten free flour, or serving the stew over rice or polenta, gets you there without a fructan source. Onion, leek bulb and wheat flour are the usual thickening and flavouring shortcuts and none of them helps with a fructan problem, so the garlic infused oil route plus chives or the green tops of spring onions is the version worth learning.

How to lower the load

Buy small, firm, bright pods that snap rather than bend, since the large woody ones are stringy and tempt you to use more of them to get the same amount of edible vegetable. Trim and slice, then measure 1 cup (75g) into the pot rather than adding pods by hand, because the step from 1 cup (75g) to 1⅛ cups (84g) is small enough to cross by accident. If you are cooking for a table, work out how many portions the pot makes and serve to that number, since okra sinks into a stew and becomes impossible to judge once it is in there. Eating out, gumbo and bhindi masala are onion and garlic dishes by construction and the okra is unmeasured, so the home version is the one you can actually keep near the tested serving.

Common questions

how much okra can you eat on a low fodmap diet

The tested serving is 1 cup (75g) and okra is moderate there, with no lower amount tested. It is high at 1⅛ cups (84g), which is only a little more, so this one needs measuring.

is okra high in fructans

Fructans are the subgroup behind okra's rating. They put it at moderate at 1 cup (75g) and take it to high at 1⅛ cups (84g).

can i have okra on the elimination phase

Okra is moderate at its smallest tested serving of 1 cup (75g), so it is not one of the low staples the elimination phase is built around. What fits your own diet later is worked out with a dietitian.

what is a good low fodmap substitute for okra in gumbo

Green beans hold their shape in a stew and stay low, and zucchini or bell pepper fills out the pot. For thickness, use a gluten free flour roux or serve it over rice rather than reaching for wheat flour or onion.