Is honey low FODMAP?
Large amounts of honey should be avoided in the elimination phase of the FODMAP diet. Honey is high in fructose and if you eat too much of it, this can cause complaints.
Honey is low FODMAP in very small quantities. According to the Monash University FODMAP app, 1 tsp or 7 grams of honey is low FODMAP.
From 14 grams or 1/2 tbsp, your serving of honey contains an average amount of fructose and at 28 grams (1 tbsp) or more your serving of honey contains a large amount of fructose.
So you can eat a very small amount of honey in the elimination phase of the FODMAP diet, but you have to be careful with larger amounts.
Testing your tolerance for fructose
Honey is one of the products with which you can test your tolerance to the FODMAP group fructose in the reintroduction phase of the diet.
You can also find this in the Monash FODMAP app if you click on “diary” and then on the plus sign at the top right. Then click on the apple with the arrow.
If you select fructose there, you will see that you can reintroduce fructose with, among other things, asparagus, honey, mango, sugar snap peas, and orange juice.
For honey, the test amounts are as follows:
- On day 1 you test with 10 grams or 1.5 tsp of honey
- On day 2, test with 14 grams or 2 tsp of honey
- On day 3 you test with 28 grams or 1 tbsp of honey
Are you still in the elimination phase of the diet? Then it is advisable to stick to the safe serving size of honey of 1 tsp or 7 grams.
Also, make sure that you do not combine honey with other foods that are limited low FODMAP and contain fructose, otherwise, you may stack FODMAPs and get complaints.
Foods with honey in it
You may have noticed that there are products FODMAP certified by Monash University that contain honey.
This is, for example, the case with the Schär Artisan bread classic. If you look at the ingredients you will see that honey is listed at the back of the ingredients list.
Two slices of this bread are low FODMAP. The reason that this bread is listed as low FODMAP is probably that in a serving size of 2 slices, the amount of honey in the bread is lower than 7 grams.
Replacing honey on the FODMAP diet
A teaspoon of honey is not that much, so if you want to eat something that normally contains a larger amount of honey, it is better to replace it with something else during the elimination phase of the FODMAP diet.
Good substitutes for honey include:
- Maple syrup
- Rice syrup
Be careful not to use agave syrup. Agave syrup is low FODMAP in even a smaller amount than honey and has a low FODMAP serving of 5 grams.
Other blogs about the FODMAPs in foods
Would you like to read more about whether certain foods are low FODMAP and in what quantities? Check out the articles below:
Fruits and vegetables
- Are tomatoes low FODMAP?
- Are bell peppers low FODMAP?
- Is coconut low FODMAP?
- Are bananas low FODMAP?
- Are mushrooms low FODMAP?
- Is broccoli low FODMAP?
- Is kale low FODMAP?
- Is spinach low FODMAP?
- Is corn low FODMAP?
- Is avocado low FODMAP?
- Is sweet potato low FODMAP?
- Are pickles low FODMAP?
Dairy and grains
- Is rice low FODMAP?
- Is quinoa low FODMAP?
- Are oats low FODMAP?
- What bread is low FODMAP?
- Which milk is low FODMAP?
- What cheeses are low FODMAP?
- Is butter low FODMAP?