What fruit can I eat on the low fodmap diet?
What low fodmap fruits are currently in season? Here’s why this week’s fruit and vegetable market update is grim news for fodmappers.
Farmers markets are finally showing the colourful fruits of Spring but there are slim pickings for fodmappers. Sadly, fructans, sorbitol and fructose are bountiful so you’ll need some steely resolve to walk past many of this season’s fresh fruit. We’ve looked at this week’s Sydney Markets Fresh Fruit, Vegetable & Flower Report (14-20 Nov 2022) along with the Monash Fodmap app to help you choose what low fodmap fruit to buy this weekend. But it’s not great news.
Champagne melon: The Sydney Markets Fresh Fruit, Vegetable & Flower Report (14-20 November 2022) reports that yellow-fleshed champagne melons are now in season, but sadly this type of melon remains untested for fodmaps.
Mango: Kensington Pride, R2E2 and Calypso mangoes are in peak production but with a low fodmap serve of just 40g (1/5th of a cup), it’s going to take a long time for a fodmapper to finish a tray of mangoes! Perhaps buy one and enjoy one slice per day.
Strawberries: Strawberries are $1.50-$4 a punnet, depending on the quality and punnet size. With a low fodmap serving of 5 medium sized berries, strawberries are a welcome addition to a fodmapper’s fruit bowl.
Cherries: It’s been a slow start to the cherry season due to the cold and wet weather on the east coast. But this wont impact fodmappers much because the low fodmap serving size for cherries is just 2. Savour every mouthful.
Peach, nectarine and apricots: While the fragrant and juicy peaches, nectarines and apricots are irresistible, resist you must, with many having miniscule low fodmap serving sizes. How much joy is there to be had in 1.5 tablespoons? Only the yellow peach has a low fodmap serving size of 30g.
Cherry tomatoes: Cherry tomatoes are red and sweet and there are plenty available, but the low fodmap serving size has recently been reduced to just 3 tomatoes. If you cut them in half, the serving size doubles!
Papaya: And here’s some good news for fodmappers. Fresh Queensland papaya, with its highly scented pinkish-orange flesh, is top quality and reasonably priced at $2-$5 a kilo, depending on the variety. Papaya is a good source of fibre and is rich in papain, a natural enzyme that helps with the digestion of proteins. The low fodmap serve for both yellow papaya and the recently green papaya is 1 cup or 140g per meal.
Avocado: Avocadoes are cholesterol-free, high in vitamins B6 and E and folic acid, and provide vitamin C and potassium. Fodmappers can enjoy a slither (1/8 whole avocado) on their salad.
Grapes: New-season grapes have started, with sweet-eating white Meindee seedless grapes from Mareeba on the market. At $16-25 per kilo, fodmappers will be pleased that the low fodmap serving size is 6 grapes.
Market update
So not great news for fodmappers this weekend. But we do hope you savour tropical papaya, firm bananas, strawberries and a small handful of grapes.