The Field Guide
Know what food does to your body.
Plain-English, sourced explainers, and straight answers to “is this food a trigger?” The chart is generic. Your gut isn't, so the real job is finding your own line. Here's the map.
Finding your trigger foods
How to actually pin down what's wrecking you — and why a generic chart can't.
- The best way to find your trigger foods isn't an app or a testBarcode scanners score a product against a population. IgG panels aren't validated for food sensitivity. The only method that finds your triggers is watching your own gut against its own baseline, which is exactly the kind of pattern you can't hold in your head.8 min read
- Why your food diary quit on you by week twoA food-and-symptom diary is the right instrument failing on the wrong problem. The job was never willpower. It's that you have to log faithfully, read ingredients you can't see, and catch reactions that show up hours late. Where a plain diary works, where it breaks, and what fixes it.8 min read
- Why your 'healthy' lunch is the one that bloats youSmoothies, salads, beans, cauliflower, oat milk: the foods on every wellness list also top the gut's most-fermentable list. The reason isn't that they're bad for you. It's that healthy says nothing about how your gut handles them, and the dose adds up.8 min read
- Why your bloating shows up 6 hours late — and convicts the wrong mealFermentable carbs aren't digested until they reach your colon, hours after you eat them — so lunch's garlic gets blamed on dinner. The clock between bite and symptom is the clue most people throw away.8 min read
- Why Ozempic gives you reflux and nausea — and the meal habits that fix itThe queasiness and reflux after starting a GLP-1 isn't random. The drug slows your stomach on purpose, so food sits longer. Three meal habits move the side effects more than any single 'bad food': how big the meal is, how fatty, and how late.7 min read
- Your labs came back normal. You're still bloated. Both can be true.A clean scope and normal bloodwork rule out structural disease, not a real, pattern-based disorder. IBS and its kin are disorders of gut-brain interaction, and standard tests aren't built to see them. What 'normal' actually rules in, the red flags that mean go back, and how to bring a pattern to your next appointment.8 min read
- Why does coffee upset my stomach?Decaf does it too, which clears the obvious suspect. Coffee runs three separate jobs on your gut at once, and the one that sends you to the bathroom isn't the caffeine.7 min read
- Fiber is supposed to help. So why does it bloat you?The food every doctor tells you to eat more of is also a top bloat driver. The gas usually isn't your gut rejecting fiber — it's fermentation, and a sign the bacteria are still catching up.7 min read
FODMAPs & IBS
The fermentable carbs behind bloating, and which foods carry them.
- Start hereThe high-FODMAP 'avoid' list is a test, not a life sentenceOnions, wheat, apples, milk. The FODMAP avoid list reads like foods you can never eat again. It's actually a short diagnostic: cut the whole list briefly, then add families back to find which fermentable carbs your gut can't handle, and in what amount.9 min read
- FODMAP stacking: why you bloat even when every food was 'safe'Each food on your plate can be low-FODMAP on its own and still add up to a reaction. Your gut doesn't grade foods one at a time; it adds them up. How fermentable carbs stack within a meal, with the smoothie that proves it.8 min read
- Is it actually gluten? The fructan mix-upWhen researchers fed gluten-free eaters secret gluten, nothing happened. When they fed them fructans, they bloated. Why most 'gluten sensitivity' is your gut fermenting a carb — and how a slice of sourdough can tell you which one is yours.8 min read
- The sugar-free bloat: why sugar alcohols wreck your stomachA "sugar-free" mint can do to your gut what a candy bar won't. Sorbitol, mannitol and the other -itols slip past your small intestine and pull water into your colon — here's the dose where it tips.7 min read
- Is garlic high FODMAP?Garlic is high FODMAP even in tiny amounts, because the fructans it carries are concentrated and water-soluble. The fix isn't going without flavor: garlic-infused oil leaves the fructans behind. Why a clove punches above its weight, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Is onion high FODMAP?Onion is high FODMAP at almost any normal amount. It carries fructans, the chains brown and white onion are loaded with, and Monash never found a safe serving for the common kinds. The green tops and infused oil are the way around it.4 min read
- Is wheat (and bread) high FODMAP?Wheat is high FODMAP by the slice, not by the molecule. The trigger is fructans, not gluten, and the line you cross is a dose. How much bread sits under the threshold, and why sourdough buys you more.4 min read
- Is apple high FODMAP?A whole apple is high FODMAP, but a small slice is low. Apple carries two FODMAPs at once, excess fructose and sorbitol, and Monash sets the low-FODMAP line at about a fifth of a medium apple. Where your own line sits is the part no chart can tell you.4 min read
- Is honey high FODMAP?Honey is high FODMAP at a tablespoon and low at a teaspoon. The reason is excess fructose: honey carries more fructose than glucose, and that gap is what your small intestine struggles to absorb. The serving size is the whole answer.4 min read
- Is avocado high FODMAP?Avocado is low FODMAP in a small serving and high in a larger one. The dose-dependent answer, the polyol that isn't sorbitol, and why your line is yours to find.4 min read
- Is mango high FODMAP?A whole mango is high FODMAP, but a few cubes are low. Mango carries one FODMAP, excess fructose, which is the reason Monash made it the fruit you test fructose with. Where the line sits, and why yours isn't the chart's.4 min read
- Is watermelon high FODMAP?Watermelon is high FODMAP, and it earns the rating the hard way: it carries three FODMAP families at once. Why its safe serving shrinks to about a tablespoon and a half, and how to find the line that's actually yours.4 min read
- Are cashews high FODMAP?Cashews are high FODMAP at a normal handful, and they carry two FODMAPs at once where most nuts carry one. The load is GOS and fructans, not fat. Why a tiny scatter still sits low, why soaking changes the math, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Are black beans high FODMAP?Black beans are high FODMAP by the cupful and low by the spoonful, and how you cook them moves the line. The trigger is GOS, the FODMAP nobody has the enzyme to break. Why a rinsed two tablespoons sits fine, and where your own line lands.4 min read
- Is cauliflower high FODMAP?White cauliflower is high FODMAP, and unusually it has no tested safe serving. The trigger is mannitol, a polyol that pulls water into your gut. Why even a small floret runs high, the purple variety that doesn't, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Are mushrooms high FODMAP?Common white mushrooms are high FODMAP, but the word "mushroom" hides the answer. The trigger is mannitol, a polyol packed into the button varieties and nearly absent from others. Why oyster and canned mushrooms slip under the line, and how to find yours.4 min read
- Are chickpeas high FODMAP?Chickpeas are high FODMAP by the cupful and low by the spoonful. The trigger is GOS, the bean sugar no human has the enzyme to split, and the lever is the can: rinsing drained chickpeas washes much of it down the sink. Where the low serving sits, and why your own line is yours to find.4 min read
- Are lentils high FODMAP?Lentils run high FODMAP in a big bowl and low in a small one, and the form does most of the work. The trigger is GOS, which dissolves into the cooking and canning water, so drained canned lentils carry less than the same lentils boiled and eaten in their liquid. Where the low serving sits, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Are pears high FODMAP?A whole pear is high FODMAP, but a couple of thin slices sit low. Pear carries two FODMAPs at once, excess fructose and sorbitol, and Monash sets the low-FODMAP line for a nashi pear at about a teaspoon. Why pear runs harder than apple, and where your own line sits.4 min read
- Is rice low FODMAP? (the safe-base question)Rice is one of the few grains that stays low FODMAP at a generous serving, which is why it's the default safe base on the diet. White rice especially carries almost no fermentable load. This covers the portion where even rice can tip over, and why a "safe" food still isn't a free pass.4 min read
- Are bananas high FODMAP? (ripe vs unripe)A firm, just-ripe banana is low FODMAP at a whole medium fruit. Let it go soft and spotty and it turns high. Banana is the rare fruit that gets riskier as it ripens, because its fructans climb while it sits. Where the line moves, and why your spotty banana isn't the same food as your firm one.4 min read
- Is broccoli high FODMAP?Good news first: broccoli is low FODMAP at a normal serving. The one FODMAP it carries is excess fructose, and Monash found it concentrated in the stalks, not the heads. Here is why a whole head passes where trimmed stems alone do not, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Is milk high in lactose?Cow's milk is high in lactose, and lactose is a FODMAP. Giving up dairy isn't the only move: lactose-free milk has the sugar pre-split, and hard aged cheese loses almost all of it. Why the milk bloats you and the cheddar doesn't, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Is cheese high in lactose? (hard vs soft)Most aged hard cheese is low in lactose, because the lactose drains off in the whey and the bacteria eat what's left. Soft fresh cheese keeps more. Why cheddar and parmesan get a pass where ricotta and cream cheese don't, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Is yogurt high in lactose?Yogurt holds less lactose than the milk it's made from, because the cultures eat some during fermentation. Whether a serving sits low FODMAP comes down to type and portion: plain yogurt is moderate by the small tub, lactose-free and many strained yogurts test low. Where your own line sits is the part no chart prints.4 min read
- Is ice cream high in lactose?Ice cream carries lactose, a FODMAP, so a small scoop can sit low while a bowl tips high. Monash rates about a 30 g serve of regular vanilla ice cream low FODMAP and a larger serve high. Here is why the dose decides it, where lactose-free and sorbet land, and how to find your own line.4 min read
Histamine intolerance
The bucket that overflows when aged, fermented, and leftover foods stack up.
- Start hereHistamine intolerance: why there's no fixed list of foods to blameThe wine that was fine last month floors you tonight. Histamine intolerance isn't an allergy to particular foods. It's a bucket that overflows when the histamine you eat outpaces the DAO enzyme clearing it. Why your threshold is personal and moves by the day, the foods that run high, and how to find your own line.8 min read
- The same meal is a different food on day threeHistamine builds up in protein-rich food as it ages, ferments, and sits in the fridge — so freshness isn't a wellness slogan, it's dose control. The DAO enzyme, the histamine-bucket model, the freezer move, and how to tell a sensitivity from a true allergy.8 min read
- Are tomatoes high in histamine?Fresh tomatoes hold only modest stored histamine, but they also act as a histamine liberator, and the level climbs with ripening, drying and processing. Here is why ketchup and sun-dried tomatoes rank harder than a fresh slice, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Is spinach high in histamine?Spinach is one of the few vegetables that carries histamine in the leaf itself, and the amount climbs the longer it sits. Where it lands on histamine food lists, why fresh matters, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Is aged cheese high in histamine?Aged cheese ranks among the highest-histamine foods on the plate, and the longer it ripens the higher it climbs. Here is why maturation builds histamine, how fresh cheeses dodge it, and why your own tolerance is the number no chart prints.4 min read
- Is red wine high in histamine?Red wine is one of the most reliable histamine triggers: it carries histamine from fermentation, and its alcohol slows the enzyme that clears histamine. Why the same glass hits some people and not others, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Is avocado high in histamine?Fresh avocado is low in actual histamine, yet it lands on most low-histamine "avoid" lists anyway. Here's why the lists disagree, what avocado really carries, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Is sauerkraut (and fermented food) high in histamine?Sauerkraut is one of the highest-histamine foods on the standard intolerance lists, because the same fermentation that makes it is what builds the histamine. This page covers why fresh cabbage carries almost none, why fermented foods load it, and why your own tolerance is the number no list can give you.4 min read
- Is eggplant high in histamine?Eggplant is one of the few vegetables that carries histamine in the flesh itself, and the amount climbs as the fruit ripens and sits. Where it lands on the SIGHI list, why a fresh slice differs from an old one, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Is vinegar high in histamine?It depends on which vinegar. Wine vinegar and balsamic sit in the avoid tier, while distilled white and apple cider vinegar are rated well tolerated. What separates them is the base they were fermented from, not the sourness. Why one bottle flares you and another doesn't, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Are strawberries high in histamine?Strawberries carry little histamine of their own, yet the main histamine list still flags them as a food to avoid. The reason is two other marks against them: other biogenic amines, and a liberator effect that can prompt your body to release its own histamine. Here is what that means and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Is pineapple high in histamine?Fresh pineapple carries almost no stored histamine. It lands on histamine lists for a separate reason: it gets flagged as a histamine liberator, a mechanism researchers increasingly question. Here is why a low-histamine fruit still ends up on the avoid list, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Is soy sauce high in histamine?Soy sauce is fermented for months, and fermentation is what builds histamine, so it sits near the top of every histamine list. Tyramine usually runs higher still. Why a splash punches above its size, how coconut aminos sidesteps it, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Is salami (cured meat) high in histamine?Salami ranks among the highest-histamine foods you can eat, and the curing is the reason. Fermenting and air-drying meat for weeks lets bacteria build histamine that fresh meat never carries. Here is why a cured slice ranks so hard, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Is smoked salmon high in histamine?Fresh salmon is low in histamine. Smoking and curing turn it into one of the foods low-histamine diets restrict, because the amines build during the slow cure and the days in the pack, not in the fish itself. Here is why the smoked version ranks harder than a fresh fillet, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Is kombucha high in histamine?Kombucha is fermented, and fermentation is where food histamine comes from, so low-histamine diets put it in the avoid column. How much it actually carries is unsettled, and the trace alcohol adds a second problem. Why the SCOBY is the histamine factory, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Is chocolate high in histamine?Chocolate carries little stored histamine, yet it still lands on the avoid list. It works as a histamine liberator, prompting your own cells to let some go, and its theobromine can slow the enzyme that clears histamine. Here is why the trigger isn't the histamine in the bar, and how to find your own line.4 min read
Acid reflux & GERD
What actually sets off heartburn — and why it's more mechanical than the food lists admit.
- Start hereAcid reflux trigger foods: why how you eat beats what you eatThe famous 'cut coffee, chocolate, and citrus' list is mostly a population guess. Reflux is mechanical: a valve at the top of your stomach, how full and fatty the meal is, and whether you lie down after. That's why when and how you eat usually does more for the burn than which food you swore off.8 min read
- Is coffee bad for acid reflux?Coffee relaxes the valve at the top of your stomach and prods it to make more acid, so it's a plausible reflux trigger. But the population evidence is weak, the real culprit might be your habits around it, and the only way to know is to test it on yourself.4 min read
- Is chocolate bad for acid reflux?Chocolate is one of the oldest names on the reflux-trigger list, and the mechanism is real: it relaxes the valve at the top of your stomach. Whether it sets off your reflux is personal, and the evidence for blanket food bans is thin.4 min read
- Are oranges (and citrus) bad for acid reflux?Citrus gets blamed for heartburn, but the way an orange triggers reflux is different from how chocolate or a fatty meal does. What the evidence actually shows, and why your own threshold is the number that matters.4 min read
- Are tomatoes bad for acid reflux?Tomatoes are acidic and a commonly named heartburn trigger, but whether they bother you is individual. The evidence for cutting any single food is weak; meal size, late meals, and weight carry more. How tomatoes work on the esophagus, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Is peppermint bad for acid reflux?Peppermint can loosen the valve at the top of your stomach, which is why reflux guides list it as a trigger. The mechanism is real; the evidence that it sets off your symptoms is thinner than the warning suggests. Where it actually does and doesn't matter.4 min read
- Is spicy food bad for acid reflux?Spicy food is one of the most-blamed reflux triggers, but the trial evidence that avoiding it broadly helps is thin and individual. What capsaicin actually does to an irritated esophagus, why the moves that matter most have nothing to do with spice, and how to find out if it's really your trigger.4 min read
- Is alcohol bad for acid reflux?Alcohol is one of the few diet triggers with real population evidence behind it. Drinkers report more reflux, and the odds climb with the amount. It works on the esophagus three ways at once. Even so, your own line is yours, and timing and weight tend to matter more than the bottle.4 min read
- Is fried (fatty) food bad for acid reflux?Fried, high-fat food is one of the reflux triggers with real evidence behind it, but not for the reason most lists give. The lever is the fat and the meal size, not the frying, and timing matters more than the food. Here is why a big fatty meal sits on your reflux, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Are onions bad for acid reflux?Onions are one of the few reflux triggers with an actual controlled study behind them, and raw onion is the harder form. But the bigger levers for heartburn are meal size, timing, fat, and weight. Why onion got singled out, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Is garlic bad for acid reflux?Garlic sits on almost every heartburn-trigger list, but the evidence that it sets off reflux is thin and mostly individual. Here is the likely mechanism, why raw hits harder than cooked, and why the levers that actually move reflux aren't on the food-fear list.4 min read
- Is soda (carbonation) bad for acid reflux?Soda is a plausible reflux trigger, and the carbonation is the part with a real mechanism: the gas swells your stomach and the valve at the top tends to slacken. The population evidence is weak, though. A late night can and an empty stomach probably matter more than the fizz, and your own line is the only one that counts.4 min read
- Is milk bad for acid reflux? (help or trigger)Milk is the classic heartburn home remedy, and it does soothe for a few minutes. Then it prompts the stomach to make more acid. Why the relief doesn't last, why whole milk is the riskier glass, and how to find out whether milk is actually your trigger.4 min read
- Is pizza bad for acid reflux?Pizza is one of the more believable reflux culprits, because it stacks the things guidelines actually warn about: a lot of fat, a big portion, and a late hour. Here is the mechanism behind the slice, and why your own limit lives in your gut, not on a list.4 min read
- Is ginger good for acid reflux? (the soother question)Ginger has a reputation as a stomach soother, and it does speed how fast your stomach empties, which could ease reflux. But the direct evidence for reflux is thin, a big dose can irritate the stomach and stir up acid in some people, and meal size and timing matter more. Here's why the verdict is "maybe, in small amounts," and how to find your own line.4 min read
Gout & uric acid
Purines, fructose, and the short list of foods that move your flare risk.
- Start hereGout trigger foods: it was never just the steak and the wineGout isn't about 'rich food' in the abstract. It's purines turning into uric acid, and only some high-purine sources actually move your flare risk. Why beer and soda matter through a different door than a pork chop, and why purine-rich vegetables barely count.8 min read
- Are anchovies bad for gout?Anchovies sit near the top of the purine charts, and high-purine seafood is linked to more gout flares. Where that risk is real, where diet ranks against medication, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Is red meat bad for gout?Red meat is high in purines, the building blocks your body turns into uric acid, and heavy meat eaters get gout more often. But diet is a modest lever next to urate-lowering medication. Here is what the science shows, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Is liver (and organ meat) bad for gout?Liver and other organ meats are among the highest-purine foods, and the big cohorts link a meat-heavy diet to more gout flares. How much that matters for you, and why diet is a modest lever next to medication.4 min read
- Is shrimp bad for gout?Shrimp is a moderate-purine seafood, and higher seafood intake tracks with more gout flares in large studies. It sits well below the worst offenders, and diet is a modest lever next to urate-lowering medication. Here is how shrimp turns into uric acid, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Is beer bad for gout?Beer is one of the worst alcoholic drinks for gout. It hits uric acid twice: ethanol and a real purine load from brewer's yeast. Here is the mechanism, the Choi cohort numbers, and why your own flare threshold is the part no chart can tell you.4 min read
- Is soda (and sugary drinks) bad for gout?Regular soda is one of the few gout triggers that carries no purines at all. It raises uric acid through fructose, which is why it slips past the standard "avoid organ meats and shellfish" list. The mechanism, the cohort numbers, and why your own flare threshold is the one that matters.4 min read
- Is turkey bad for gout?Turkey is a moderate-purine meat, closer to chicken than to the organ meats and oily fish that top the gout charts. The breast is the gentle part. The giblets and gravy are not, and diet is a modest lever next to medication. Where turkey actually sits, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Is bacon (pork) bad for gout?Bacon is pork, a moderate-purine red meat, and in the big cohorts heavy meat eaters get gout more often. It sits below organ meat and the worst seafood, and diet is a modest lever next to urate-lowering medication. Here is what the science shows, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Are sardines bad for gout?Sardines are one of the highest-purine foods you can eat, and seafood that high is linked to more gout flares. But diet is a modest lever next to urate-lowering medication, and the purine-rich vegetables in the same tier barely move risk. Here is why the fish and the lentils part ways, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Are scallops bad for gout?Scallops are a moderate-to-high-purine shellfish, and higher seafood intake is linked to more gout flares in large studies. They sit near shrimp on the purine charts, well below organ meats and oily fish like anchovies. Diet is a modest lever next to urate-lowering medication. Here is how scallops feed uric acid, and why your own flare line is the one that matters.4 min read
- Is tuna bad for gout?Tuna is a moderate-to-high-purine fish, and a seafood-heavy diet tracks with more gout flares in the big cohorts. It sits below anchovies and sardines but above white fish like cod. Here is how tuna turns into uric acid, the purine twist the charts hide, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Are mussels bad for gout?Mussels are a high-purine shellfish, and high-purine seafood is linked to more gout flares. Where that risk is real, why diet ranks below medication, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Are lentils bad for gout? (the purine-veg surprise)Lentils are high in purines on the chart, so people with gout often fear them. But in the large cohorts, purine-rich plants like lentils were not linked to flares the way meat and seafood were. Here is why the source of the purine seems to matter, and how to find your own line.4 min read
- Is asparagus bad for gout? (the purine-veg surprise)Asparagus sits on every purine chart, which scares a lot of people with gout off it. But the big cohort that actually tracked flares found purine-rich vegetables didn't raise the risk. Why plant purines behave differently, and how to find your own line.4 min read