FODMAP foods / How Belly Buddy rates FODMAPs
How it works
How Belly Buddy rates FODMAPs
You photograph an ingredient list and the app gives you a level for every ingredient, then one level for the product. Here is what happens in between, with nothing dressed up.
The reference we follow
Every rule inside the app comes from the low FODMAP method Monash University has published, together with the serving guidance that goes with it. Low, Medium and High mean what they mean there, and how much you eat is part of the rating rather than a footnote. Low means low in a normal serving, not free of FODMAPs, so a large portion, or several Low foods at the same meal, can still add up.
FODMAP research is still ongoing. Monash University runs that research and keeps testing foods, and its published guidance is updated from time to time, so a food's level can change when it is tested again. When that happens, our ratings are updated to follow the published guidance.
Belly Buddy is an independent app. It is not affiliated with Monash University and it is not endorsed by them, and it does not use their app or any licensed data of theirs. We follow the published guidance, nothing more.
One ingredient at a time
Each ingredient on the label is rated Low, Medium or High against the FODMAP rules, with a short reason given for that rating.
The product verdict
The ingredients are then weighed together to give the product one overall verdict. Lactose free milk, for example, comes out Low because the lactase has already broken down the lactose, even though milk is on the label.
Memory and checks
Ratings are checked in batches against Monash University's published guidance, and any that are wrong get corrected.
Limits
This is not medical advice. FODMAP tolerance is personal: two people with the same diagnosis can react differently to the same biscuit, and the portion often matters more than the ingredient itself. A dietitian who knows your case is the one who decides what you eat and when you try it again.
The app can be wrong. Labels get reformulated, wording is ambiguous, a photo is misread. We take stored ratings in batches, read them by hand and correct the ones that are wrong. Treat the app as help for reading a label, not as a replacement for a dietitian who knows your case.
Scan any label in seconds
Belly Buddy reads the ingredient list and rates every line on it.
Belly Buddy is not medical advice. FODMAP tolerance is personal. Talk to a dietitian before you change your diet.