Food avoidance in athletes: FODMAP foods on the list

We surveyed 910 athletes to assess behaviors towards self-selected food/ingredient avoidance to minimize gastrointestinal distress. Fifty-five percent eliminated at least one high FODMAP food/category, with up to 82.6% reporting symptom improvement. In athletes indicating that high FODMAP foods trigger GI symptoms, lactose (86.5%) was most frequently eliminated, followed by galacto-oligosaccharides (23.9%), fructose (23.0%), fructans (6.2%) and polyols (5.4%). Athletes avoid predominantly lactose and to a lesser extent other high FODMAP foods to reduce gastrointestinal distress.