High FODMAP
Avoid during elimination. Save for a structured reintroduction challenge.
Safe serving
No safe serving during elimination
FODMAP group responsible
- Fructans — Oligosaccharides. Wheat, onion, garlic. The most common trigger and the hardest to avoid.
Why
Garlic is the single highest-fructan food most people eat daily, and there is no portion small enough to be considered safe during elimination. It is also the hardest to avoid, because it appears as powder, granules, paste and unnamed 'natural flavouring' in stock, sauces, crisps, marinades and nearly every prepared savoury product.
What to use instead
Garlic-infused oil
Fructans are water-soluble and do not migrate into oil, so you get the flavour without the trigger. Buy it rather than making it — home-infusing raw garlic in oil carries a genuine botulism risk.
Asafoetida (hing)
A pinch bloomed in oil reads convincingly of allium. Choose a compounded version without wheat flour.
Recipes using garlic
Tomato and Basil Pasta with Garlic-Infused Oil
Proof that pasta night survives the elimination phase. Twenty minutes, one pan of sauce, and nobody at the table can tell it is a restricted recipe.
- Elimination
- Reintroduction
- Maintenance
Crispy Tofu and Green Bean Stir-Fry
A proper vegetarian main that is not just a side dish with more of it. The trick is drying the tofu properly before it ever meets the pan.
- Elimination
- Reintroduction
- Maintenance
This entry is compiled from published Monash-aligned guidance rather than our own laboratory testing, and thresholds are revised as new data arrives. For the elimination phase the Monash app is the authority. See the full food list for how the categories fit together, orcheck another food.
Low-FODMAP Elimination Phase Starter Kit
A 14-page PDF: the full safe-foods list, a two-week meal plan, a printable symptom tracker and a shopping checklist you can take to the store.