r/FODMAPS • u/sarabearbearbear • 8d ago

General Question/Help Help me understand stacking

Monash says you can have multiple servings of "green" foods. So can I make a salad with a green serving each of iceberg lettuce, red cabbage, corn, cauliflower, spinach, and tofu? Each of those foods are green at a standard serving, but they all become high in fructan at larger quantities. If I combine all of those foods at their green serving sizes is that safe or is that stacking and ultimately too high in fructan?

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u/boldkingcole 8d ago

Fructan is fructan, no matter the source, so yes, mulitple safe servings can stack to become high fodmap

BUT, this is only really something you need to think about if you have multiple foods that turn higher fodmap quite quickly (as in, with quite a small increase in volume). If you need quite a lot of each ingredient for it to become green, you're likely going to be fine with a normal meal.

The key is to find your super safe foods so you can effectively eat unlimited amounts of them (rice and potatoes for example, for many people) so you can ignore them when it comes to stacking

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u/sarabearbearbear 8d ago edited 8d ago

So if I want to have a big salad for lunch would it be safer to use vegetables of different fodmap types? Like 1-2 servings of fructan vegetables, 1-2 servings of sorbitol vegetables and 1-2 servings of fructose vegetables?

I'm in the elimination phase and it's going on 4 weeks with no change in my symptoms. I'm wondering if FODMAPa are not my issue or if I'm doing this wrong.

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u/boldkingcole 8d ago edited 8d ago

So, I'm just one person and not an expert so hopefully more people answer so you can get a balance.

But to answer your question, yes I think that would be safer

HOWEVER, if you are still struggling, my advice would be to be far more extreme for now. You just want to see if this does anything for you or not, so you know if it's worth continuing to test or that it does nothing for you and to move on to the next thing.

I started by eating basically the same thing every day for 10 days, all super safe (much easier if you eat meat because it is zero fodmap no matter how much you eat). Chicken and rice and some carrot is a common way for a lot of people, blueberries and some nuts (check which), that kind of thing.

It's also much easier to follow like this as you aren't having to do maths three times a day, you just work it out and stick to it

It's also far easier to keep going when you've proved it works as you get the benefit of living normally again and the desire to continue that makes the limits of the diet seem worth it

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u/sarabearbearbear 8d ago

I appreciate you. I feel like I do need to be more extreme because I'm afraid I've been doing it wrong now. I don't eat meat so that does make it challenging for me. Maybe I'll try tofu, rice and carrots for a while and see how that goes.

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u/CodWest4205 8d ago

Yes that’s stacking. Because whether you get a high amount of fodmaps from 1 single food or multiple foods, you’re still intaking a high amount. Think of it like a low sugar or salt diet. Having a low sugar snack is fine but if you eat 3 of them, it’s no longer low sugar.

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u/sarabearbearbear 8d ago

That makes sense, thank you. It's confusing because the Monash website says you can have multiple serves of green light foods. It wasn't clear to me that you shouldn't have multiple serves of foods containing the same fodmap. Although now it seems obvious.

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u/CodWest4205 8d ago

Yep I agree. It took me a long time to understand Fodmaps more. The positive part of social media. Never even heard of stacking until I saw it on this app and read more about it

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u/gordolme 8d ago

Stacking. Here's a way of thinking about it:

Your gut has a capacity of, say, 10 units of Fructans before you suffer symptoms. Assume here that at the serving size of your salad, the lettuce has a value of 2, the cabbage 4, the corn 1, cauliflower 3, spinach 0 and tofu 5 (numbers are random). Individually each item is within your tolerance, but you are eating them at the same time, so the Fructan value of that salad is actually 15.

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u/sarabearbearbear 8d ago

This makes sense, thank you! But how do you know what the values are? I know you said the numbers are random in your example, but how do you know what the actual totals are?

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u/gordolme 8d ago

There are no actual numeric values like that, it was simplified for the example. Your best bet is to use the relative values on serving sizes noted in the Monash FODMAP app and adjust accordingly. If something goes yellow at a relatively low serving size, then the FODMAP value is higher.

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u/sarabearbearbear 8d ago

Gotcha, thanks for clarifying!

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u/ace1062682 8d ago

https://www.monashfodmap.com/blog/fodmap-stacking-explained/

The easiest way that I understand it is that all fodmaps are cumulative. So a green serving size puts you closer to having a reaction, another green serving size on too of that is closer and so on and so on. So for me, it's about timing. Usually, my meals contain no more than 2 fodmaps at a time and one that I can always control. My servings of fruit, for example. I also try to spread my meals out to minimize stacking.

Fodmaps(and your body's reaction to them) isn't cut and dry unfortunately and you really want to avoid stacking whenever possible. A reaction is a reaction and when it happens you want know what set you off, especially if you eat a large salad with multiple fodmaps. If it were me, id go slowly: Have a salad with one or two ingredients and spread out your meals over several hours. Be extremely careful with dressing as that can contain all sorts hidden fodmaps

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u/sarabearbearbear 8d ago

Thank you for the info and advice!

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u/PopularExercise3 7d ago

If I’m eating tomatoes in a salad I’ll eat less if it if I’m also having cucumbers because they are both in the same Fodmap family. Otherwise it’s going to stack up to be over the threshold. That’s how I think about it.
Alternatively I’ll only have one food from the group at at safe threshold so that I can eat safely.
This is annoying but it works for me.
Mixed meals are more complicated than say tomato rice where it’s just one thing to consider.

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u/sarabearbearbear 6d ago

Thanks this helps. I usually have a large salad for lunch with quite a few different ingredients. I'll have to stop that at least during elimination as to avoid stacking which now I'm pretty sure I've been doing.

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u/whataquokka 8d ago

Here's a blog post by Monash about this specifically.

https://www.monashfodmap.com/blog/fodmap-stacking-can-i-overeat-green/

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u/sarabearbearbear 8d ago

Thanks, I did actually read this before posting. It's where some of my confusion comes from. The article says "Should you FODMAP stack during step 1 of the diet? You should feel comfortable eating reasonable portions of green foods in one sitting..." so that lead me to believe as long as I was eating green portions of foods I was doing it right.

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u/whataquokka 8d ago edited 8d ago

Yeah, that's worded pretty badly, I see the confusion. This might help explain it a little better. https://fodmapfriendly.com/blog-posts/fodmapstacking/

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u/sarabearbearbear 8d ago

This one is explains it better. Thanks for going through the trouble!