So you may be thinking if I can’t have garlic then why would I be allowed to have garlic infused olive oil right? Well we are here to explain why garlic infused olive oil is totally fine on a low FODMAP diet!
To begin let’s get back to basics and review why garlic can cause issues with people following a low FODMAP diet. Garlic is made up of a specific type of sugar called Fructan. Fructans are an Oligosaccharide which is the sugar group which makes up the O in FODMAP (if you want a more in depth explanation of FODMAPs read this blog post). This sugar group is loved by our friendly gut bacteria! They love to feast on fructan and in turn ferment it, producing gas. For someone who already has a sensitive gut, this additional gas and distension can cause abdominal pain. Fructans also trigger the movement of water into the small intestine, which can cause altered bowel movements.
But what does this have to do with garlic infused olive oil? Well since the part of the garlic which causes tummy issues is the sugar then that’s the bit that we want to avoid. If you think about dissolving a teaspoon of table sugar in a cup of oil, you’ll know that it wouldn’t work as sugar is not soluble in oil. Same thing goes for garlic. The sugar which causes the tummy issues stays intact in the garlic clove and doesn’t dissolve in the oil, keeping it fructan free. BUT, the cool part about garlic and oil is the flavour of the garlic does infuse into the oil so you get all of that delicious garlic flavour with none of the tummy issues.
The next time you’re in the oil isle at the supermarket keep an eye out for garlic infused olive oil! Cobram Estate has come out with a Garlic Infused Olive Oil which is FODMAP Friendly certified so it’s safe to have on the pre-test diet! Check out the FODMAP Friendly certified infused oils here!