It was our first time in America for a longer period. I visited New York for a week 5 years ago, my boyfriend had never been to America before.

I was a bit nervous about how it would go with food there. Because I had never been to this part of America and I was worried if there would be enough low FODMAP options for me.

In this blog I want to share my experiences with you and tell you how I experienced three weeks of low FODMAP eating in America.

If you are also interested in reading more about which route we took, how I experienced the road trip in general, and my tips for a road trip on the west coast of America. Let me know in the comments below!

For now, first my tips for food in America!

Supermarkets

The most well-known supermarket in America is Walmart. This is also the chain that you encounter in most places. A huge supermarket where you can find everything, a lot of food, but also a lot of non-food products.

In addition, we regularly visited Safeways during our trip, also a large supermarket.

And then we went to Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s, the latter of which was my absolute favorite.

In the big supermarkets, like Walmart and Safeways I found that the range of gluten-free and low FODMAP products was not very big. There was some, but it was very expensive.

For example, they had bread from Schär, which we also have in the Netherlands, but that cost 7 dollars per loaf.

But if you’re looking for some gluten-free bread or crackers, you can find them there.

Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods are more niche supermarkets. I think they are a bit comparable to Ekoplaza in the Netherlands but with a larger assortment.

Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods have a lot more gluten-free, lactose-free, vegetarian, and vegan options.

These stores really made me feel like I was walking around in a candy store. So many interesting products to try!

Whole Foods is really expensive. I found Trader Joe’s a bit more affordable, but in any case, supermarkets in this part of America are not cheap.

For example, I found great options at Trader Joe’s for low FODMAP crackers (rice cakes and seed crackers), gluten-free muffins (they had delicious pumpkin spice muffins, which I had to try of course), snacks (like almond butter cups and nuts). And I even bought a gluten-free baking mix to try out at home.

What is good to know is that these larger chains are mainly found around cities. We went from San Francisco to a number of national parks in the interior of California, Utah, and Arizona and there we occasionally came across a Walmart or a Safeway, but otherwise, there were mainly smaller supermarkets with much less low FODMAP options.

I can therefore certainly recommend that you take a good look at what supermarkets you will encounter on your route and where possible, stock up on food for the road if possible. For example, for lunch.

Because you often drive long distances with few places to buy food, it is also smart to purchase a cool box.

We didn’t do that, but in hindsight, I would have preferred to. You could find these for a few tens at Walmart, for example.

En route

We were on the road a lot for almost two weeks of our trip. From San Francisco, we went to Yosemite National Park and then to Zion and Bryce Canyon in Utah.

Then we went to Page in Arizona for a few days for Antelope Canyon. And we stopped briefly at the Grand Canyon. In total, we drove more than 5000 kilometers (3000 miles) during our vacation.

To save money and because my stomach doesn’t do so well on it, we usually only ate one meal a day in a restaurant and not more than that. We often made breakfast in our hotel room and brought something for lunch on the way.

That is, in my opinion, a real recommendation for fellow fodmappers! It gives me a lot of peace of mind when I put together part of my meals myself and I know exactly what is in them.

So, I usually make one or two meals a day myself on holiday.

Low FODMAP breakfast

Most of the hotels we stayed at did not offer breakfast. We had also read online that breakfast in American hotels was not great compared to what we are used to in European hotels.

We had breakfast included in only one hotel and we didn’t like it much.

There were mainly a lot of sweet breads and cakes, and very little vegetables, fruit, meats and cheese, as we are used to in hotels in Europe.

For me, these breads and cakes are not an option of course.

The only thing I could eat at the hotel breakfast was an omelet and a bag of oatmeal that I could boil with water to make oatmeal porridge.

The latter was still fine. I made the mistake of getting the maple syrup-flavored variety on the first day and that was way too sweet for me.

The natural version was fortunately tasty. I added some fruit to it that I had bought at the supermarket. At the hotel breakfast, they only had apples and that was of course not an option for me.

I can also recommend taking care of your own breakfast.

Most hotels had a refrigerator in the room and often a microwave. I bought a tub of Quaker plain oatmeal at our first stop and that lasted me the entire trip.

I made oatmeal porridge in the microwave with some almond milk or water and I had some nuts and fresh fruit with it. That was a very nice fiber-rich breakfast for me to start the day with.

I often get extra stomach problems on holiday because I consume less fiber than at home, so I made sure to start the day with oatmeal.

Sometimes we didn’t have a microwave available, so I would buy a container of yogurt and put some oatmeal and fruit in it.

Also handy are the ready-made containers of oatmeal that you can find in the supermarket. This is a portion of oatmeal to which you usually have to add boiling water.

Sometimes milk powder is added to this, but not always. I also sometimes take the milk powder version of such oatmeal, because it is just a bit creamier. And then I take a lactase pill from Intoleran with it .

Lunch on the go

During the inland part of our journey, we drove very long stretches without encountering any restaurants, gas stations, etc. Sometimes it was just empty for hours.

Fortunately, there was a fantastic view, but you shouldn’t expect to be able to buy anything along the way.

Sometimes we came across a very small village where you had one or two restaurants, but in these places, the choice for me was very limited.

There was usually some kind of salad available, so I would often choose a simple salad without the dressing and I could get some olive oil to make my own dressing. That was a great low FODMAP option.

But we always made sure we had lunch with us. There was also little food available in the National Parks where we hiked.

I wasn’t thrilled with the gluten-free and low FODMAP bread options in the supermarkets. My boyfriend, who eats regular bread, didn’t like the bread in America.

It was a bit too soft and sweet for him, and that didn’t make me excited to try the gluten-free bread.

So I came up with another, healthy option for my lunches on the go. We bought a pack of ziplock bags and I made a kind of snack pack with them.

I then took the following things with me in different bags:

• Fiber-rich gluten-free crackers (which I found at Walmart and Trader Joe’s, among others)
• Snack tomatoes
• Snack carrots
• Cucumber slices
• Slices of hard cheddar cheese (make sure you buy regular cheddar cheese slices and not those thin slices of hamburger cheese. Those often contain more lactose).
• Nuts, such as pecans

That way I had a nutritious lunch with me and ate crackers with cheese and different kinds of vegetables.

I was really excited about this. It worked well for me and I liked it better than the gluten-free bread options in the supermarket.

Public toilets

Also good to know for people with IBS like us: there are a lot of public toilets in America, that’s great! In Europe, you often have to pay for toilets at gas stations, but in America, toilets are almost always free.

We often stopped at gas stations along the way or went to the toilet at a Starbucks, for example, when we went to get a coffee.

Usually, in these types of restaurants, you could only use the toilet if you also bought something and you received a toilet code on the receipt.

But we often felt like having something to drink or a snack, so we could combine the two nicely.

Only on long stretches through the desert or the middle of nowhere in Utah, Arizona or Nevada was there sometimes no toilet to be found for a long time.

That’s why we always made sure we had toilet paper with us so that we could pee behind a scarce tree or bush in the wild if necessary 😉 But fortunately, that didn’t happen very often.

In the National Parks toilets were also very well arranged. These were not the toilets that smelled the freshest because these were usually dump toilets without running water. So a hole in the ground with a toilet bowl placed on it.

But despite the fact that it smelled, it was relatively clean and there was always toilet paper and disinfectant hand gel to clean your hands.

The only downside to the toilets in America I found was that they were always stalls with an open top and bottom. With very large gaps in between, so that you could almost see into someone’s toilet cubicle.

That’s not very nice for people with intestinal problems. But I just tried to get over it. Most of the people I met in a toilet, I never saw again, haha!

FODMAP enzymes

As always, my FODMAP enzymes also came along on the journey. And this time, the enzymes from Intoleran were my great savior. They made sure that I could deal with what I ate a lot more freely and that I didn’t have to pay as much attention.

Intoleran Once-a-day

I had chosen to start taking Intoleran Once-a-day a week before my trip .

This is a probiotic supplement that helps with lactose digestion.

You take one capsule per day and the probiotic strains in this capsule help break down the lactose in your food.

The probiotics do have a build-up period of 5-14 days before they work properly, which is why I started taking them before my holiday.

This was incredibly helpful as I found lactose-free options were not very easy to come by.

For example: the range of yoghurt was a lot more limited than I am used to in the Netherlands. Some supermarkets did have lactose-free yogurt, but it was very expensive and not available everywhere.

My boyfriend and I now bought a regular container of Greek yogurt together to eat for breakfast.

Also, my boyfriend and I would often get coffee at Starbucks. They do have plant-based milk options, but we would often split a large latte. And this way we could just order a regular latte.

In addition, it was very nice that I did not have to pay attention in restaurants whether a dish contained a lot of dairy products. Because I could tolerate that with these supplements.

And it was a perfect excuse to enjoy a nice ice cream now and then! When it was 40 degrees Celsius in Nevada for example!

Intoleran Quatrase

In addition to the Intoleran Once-a-day I also had a large jar of Quatrase with me. I used this in restaurants to be able to choose dishes more freely.

I always look carefully at the menu items and try to choose something that contains as few FODMAPs as possible.

But sometimes we were in places, especially inland, where the options were really limited, so I would pick what seemed like the best option and add 1 to 3 Quatrase pills.

For example, in a restaurant, the potatoes looked like they were seasoned. And that is often not low FODMAP.

But there weren’t really any other suitable options for me, so I went with the best possible option, with the enzymes included.

Also, a few times I’ve chosen something that I knew wasn’t low FODMAP, but I just really wanted to try it.

For example, I am a fan of Chipotle. Here they have gluten-free tortillas (corn tortillas) that you can fill with chicken or beef, for example. Then you add toppings of vegetables, cheese, and guacamole.

The meat is marinated, so it’s not low FODMAP and the guacamole has a lot of onion in it. But I love the guacamole there. So I had to try it.

I have done that a few times, with the Quatrase supplements . And that worked very well for me.

I ate quite a lot of onion and I normally can’t handle that very well. But with the enzymes, I hardly had any problems. That was really fantastic.

We also went to a lovely Mexican restaurant once. Mexican cuisine generally uses a lot of onion and garlic. So that is always tricky in terms of FODMAPs.

There I decided not to pay attention to the FODMAPs and ordered a similar dish as at Chipotle, with corn tortillas, beef strips, vegetables, guacamole, and even some salsa on the side.

Here too I had a delicious meal, thanks to the Quatrase.

I would recommend to always test Quatrase and also Once-a-day for yourself before you go on holiday. And also to look carefully at what works for your body and what doesn’t.

Besides using the enzymes, I also noticed that it helps me not to worry too much about my stomach.

In the past, I could get quite worked up when I was on holiday. “What if I eat something wrong and suddenly have to go to the toilet?” Or “What could be in this meal? I’ve paid attention to the FODMAPs, but what if I’ve overlooked something? I’ll get a really bad stomach ache.

I could really think about that a lot in my head.

I’m trying to be a bit more relaxed about it now. The worst that can happen is that I get a bad stomach ache. Then we’ll find a toilet and then it’ll be fine.

It sucks for a while of course, but it’s not the end of the world. And I also know that worrying about stomach pain also affects my stomach pain.

So trying to be a bit more relaxed about it makes my holidays more fun and better. Maybe a tip that you can also use 🙂

My restaurant tips

In the big cities, most restaurants always had something that could be made low FODMAP. A salad, a burger with a gluten-free bun, a piece of fish, or meat with side dishes. That was very doable.

In the smaller towns there were sometimes less options. Then I would choose a safe salad or I would have a meat or fish dish and I would use my Quatrase pills.

A few examples of restaurants and chains where I found low FODMAP options: 

The Cheesecake Factory

Cheesecake Factory lists on their menu which dishes are gluten-free or can be made gluten-free. I had a delicious gluten-free burger here. They are also super helpful with adapting dishes.

I also order cheesecake here sometimes (Yay for Intoleran Once-a-day ) and then I just don’t eat the bottom. I always find that an easy way to eat my cheesecake “low FODMAP”.

Cheesecake Factory is really one of my favorite chains. They have such an extensive menu that there is always something for me. And as a big cheesecake fan, this is just the place for me.

The portions are really big. So if you think you’re going to have a main course and then a cheesecake for dessert, think again 😉 I certainly can’t finish that.

At one point we shared a salad as a main course and then a piece of cheesecake for dessert. That was perfect for a large lunch.

Ferry Building – San Franciso

In the San Francisco Ferry Building at the harbor, I found two places that sold gluten-free things.

One was a creperie where they sold French buckwheat crepes. I didn’t try them myself, but they looked delicious. In the same building, you also had Mariposa Bakery. They had a lot of delicious gluten-free pastries and bread.

I had a delicious gluten-free bagel with cream cheese (although with a bit more cream cheese than bagel, haha) and I took a delicious blueberry muffin with me for the road.

In ‘n out burger

We also tried In ‘n Out Burger, a well-known burger chain that they mainly have on the West Coast.

I ordered a burger in a lettuce wrap instead of a bun. That was very inconvenient to eat, but I could eat it that way.

I don’t think the sauce was low FODMAP, but you could order it without sauce. I did order the sauce with a quatrase pill.

I didn’t like the fries at In ‘n Out that much, they tasted a bit like cardboard in my opinion.

Also, be careful with the ketchup that you get with everything in America. It contains fructose.

I asked for mayonnaise at most places and they almost always had it, but they always just give you ketchup.

I am 1000% a fries with mayonnaise kind of girl, so I never understand why people would eat their fries with ketchup, haha.

IHOP

IHOP was another restaurant that I had heard about a lot and that I wanted to try.

You can also find this chain in many different places.

On their website, I found that they had a gluten-free menu. One of the options on there looked quite low FODMAP, so I ordered that.

I got two gluten-free pancakes and scrambled eggs, with bacon and a hash brown.

It was tasty, but I was not crazy enthusiastic about IHOP.

Whole Foods

Whole Foods has a very extensive salad bar where you can put together your own salad. I found this ideal for a meal to go.

The salads were more expensive than I remembered from my trip to New York, so it’s still not a very cheap meal.

But it is nice if you want to put together a healthy salad yourself!

Belles Beach house – Venice Beach, LA

I had a delicious poké bowl at this restaurant. This was a really tasty meal with fresh products.

It could have been a bit bigger for me, but the poké bowl tasted very good!

Parakeet Café – San Diego

At Parakeet Café in San Diego, I spontaneously found a very tasty gluten-free muffin. They have several gluten-free pastries here. Highly recommended!

Jimmy Carter’s Mexican Cafe

Not necessarily a FODMAP-proof restaurant. But I had fantastic Mexican food here. Recommended if you can tolerate some onion etc.

Saint Bibiana Sourdough Pizza

This is not a gluten-free restaurant, but this is a to-go pizza restaurant where they sell sourdough pizza.

I tolerate sourdough quite well, so I can tolerate half a sourdough pizza. This was a very tasty pizza!

Conclusion

Respect if you read all the way to here. I wrote half a book about the low FODMAP food I ate in the United States haha!

I eat really nice things during our trip and I am very happy that I was able to find quite some low FODMAP options.

One thing I missed on this trip was small cozy authentic restaurants. That is something I really enjoy when I am traveling to countries like Italy and Spain.

And that is what I am more used to for restaurants here in the Netherlands. But that is not really a thing in the States, I felt.

But I enjoyed trying out the well-known restaurant chains in America and I ate delicious food in plenty of places.

It was an amazing trip to never forget. And what made it even more special: we got engaged! My boyfriend, now fiancée, proposed to me on our second day in Yosemite National Park!

So for next year I am going to be planning a FODMAP-proof wedding 😉

I hope you enjoyed reading about the low FODMAP food options I found on our road trip in America.

Have you been to the West Coast of America before and do you have any tips for fodmappers? Be sure to share them in the comments below. That way we can help each other out!