App for Low FODMAP Diet

October 28, 2020

After a lot of searching the internet to find more information about a low FODMAP diet, I found that the Monash University FODMAP Diet App was often recommended. It does cost about eight US dollars to purchase. It is available on the Apple App Store, Google Play and the Amazon App Store. From the Monash site – “The app is compatible with Apple Family Sharing and Google Play Family Library, meaning that you can share your app purchase with other devices you/your family own of the same type (i.e. iOS or Android). Please note: the iOS and Android versions of the app are unique and purchases cannot be transferred/shared between an iOS and Android device or vice versa.”

I found it to be a very useful app. It tells you if food is a problem on the low FODMAP diet and if so, what FODMAPs the food has: Frutose, Lactose, Mannitol, Sorbitol, GOS, and Fructan. The food may have several FODMAPs. With this information, you can figure out which FODMAPs are causing problems. It may not just be one, it could be several.

Their list of foods, both non-processed and processed, is the largest I’ve seen and they are continuing to test various foods for FODMAP.

The app also shows how important it is to pay attention to serving sizes. For example, a serving size of 1/8 cup (.99 oz) of barley pearl is fine, but if you increase the serving size to 1/2 cup (3.95 oz), you would have problems with GOS and Fructan.

The app has a listing of products based on countries, so processed foods can be found by country and they also provide a list of low FODMAP certified foods. In the US, they work with a meal delivery company, ModifyHealth showing which meals are low FODMAP.

The app provides filtering based on the types of FODMAPs you want to avoid and you can set the country. They also provide a food diary and recipes. Their recipe section is tiny, but it could help get you started. They also provide a look up for finding a Dietitian.

The app also provides settings for colorblindness and vision impairment. I have not tried these settings, as I do not need them. It also has an offline mode that is good for 60 days.

I wish the app had a search feature for food, but you have to select the Category the food falls into, such as “Bread, Cereals, Rice, and Pasta”, “Vegetables”, “Fruit”, etc. Then, you have to scroll through the list of food to find the item. In the list, they have a picture of the food, the name of the food, and if the food is okay for FODMAP. If you want more information, you can select the food item and see which FODMAPs it has. They include canned and pickled items, for example, Beetroot has three entries, one for fresh, one for canned and one for pickled. I do like the way information is displayed in the list and it is easy for me to use.