7-Day Low-FODMAP Meal Plan

How to Use This Meal Plan

This seven-day meal plan is designed for the elimination phase of the low-FODMAP protocol — the 2–4 weeks where you remove all high-FODMAP foods to establish a baseline free of symptoms. It uses only certified low-FODMAP foods at low-FODMAP serving sizes. After this phase, you will systematically reintroduce FODMAP categories one at a time to identify which ones are YOUR personal triggers.

Important: the goal is not to eat low-FODMAP forever. It is to find your personal thresholds. Many people can reintroduce several FODMAP categories after the elimination phase without symptoms.

Foods to Avoid During This Plan

Remove all of the following for the 7 days (and ideally 2–4 weeks total):

• Onion and garlic (including powders — these are hidden in most sauces and seasonings)
• Wheat, rye, barley (bread, pasta, most cereals, crackers)
• Milk and soft cheeses (use lactose-free alternatives)
• Most legumes (chickpeas, lentils, kidney beans — canned and well-rinsed are lower but still moderate)
• High-fructose fruits (apples, pears, mangoes, watermelon, peaches)
• Honey and high-fructose corn syrup
• Artificial sweeteners ending in -ol (sorbitol, xylitol, mannitol)

The 7-Day Plan

Day 1

• Breakfast: Oat porridge (rolled oats, max ½ cup dry) with blueberries and maple syrup. Lactose-free milk or almond milk.
• Lunch: Rice with grilled chicken, cucumber, carrot, and a dressing of olive oil and lemon juice. No garlic or onion.
• Dinner: Baked salmon with steamed green beans, courgette, and white rice. Season with olive oil, salt, pepper, fresh herbs.
• Snack: Rice cakes with peanut butter (2 tbsp max, no added sweeteners).

Day 2

• Breakfast: Scrambled eggs (2) with spinach and red capsicum. Gluten-free toast (sourdough spelt is not safe — use certified GF bread).
• Lunch: Tuna (canned in water) on rice cakes with lactose-free yogurt on the side. Cucumber slices.
• Dinner: Beef mince stir-fry with carrots, bok choy, courgette, and tamari (gluten-free soy sauce). Serve over rice noodles.
• Snack: A handful of walnuts (10 halves) and a small bunch of grapes.

Day 3

• Breakfast: Quinoa porridge cooked with lactose-free milk. Top with strawberries and a drizzle of maple syrup.
• Lunch: Chicken and vegetable soup using low-FODMAP stock (check label — many stocks contain onion/garlic). Add carrots, parsnip, courgette, rice.
• Dinner: Baked chicken thighs with roasted carrots, parsnip, and potatoes. Dress with garlic-infused olive oil (the fructans in garlic are not fat-soluble — infused oil gives flavour without FODMAPs).
• Snack: Lactose-free yogurt with kiwi (one kiwi is low-FODMAP and excellent for IBS-C).

Day 4

• Breakfast: Two eggs poached with smoked salmon on gluten-free toast. Side of spinach.
• Lunch: Rice paper rolls with prawns, rice vermicelli, carrot, cucumber, mint. Dip: tamari with a squeeze of lime (avoid sweet chilli sauce — contains garlic and high fructose).
• Dinner: Pan-fried white fish with a caper and lemon butter sauce. Side of green beans and basmati rice.
• Snack: A small banana (max ⅓ of a large banana — ripe, spotted bananas are lower in FODMAPs than green ones). Or 10 grapes.

Day 5

• Breakfast: Overnight oats: ½ cup oats soaked in almond milk overnight. Top with strawberries and a tablespoon of pumpkin seeds.
• Lunch: Toasted gluten-free bread with cheddar cheese (aged cheddar is low-lactose) and tomato (standard tomatoes are low-FODMAP at one medium serving). Leafy green salad with olive oil dressing.
• Dinner: Lamb chops with roasted red capsicum, courgette, and eggplant (aubergine — half a cup is low-FODMAP). Serve with basmati rice.
• Snack: Rice crackers with a thin spread of peanut butter.

Day 6

• Breakfast: Corn tortilla (check no wheat is added) with scrambled eggs, cheddar, and a side of salsa made from tomato, coriander, and lime only (no onion or garlic).
• Lunch: Leftover rice and chicken from earlier in the week with a simple salad of cucumber, carrot, spring onion greens only (the green tops of spring onions are low-FODMAP; the white bulb is high).
• Dinner: Prawn and rice noodle dish with bok choy, red capsicum, and a sauce of tamari, sesame oil, ginger (fresh ginger is low-FODMAP at small amounts), and a pinch of chilli.
• Snack: Sunflower seeds and blueberries.

Day 7

• Breakfast: Blueberry smoothie: 1 cup almond milk, ½ cup blueberries, 2 tbsp peanut butter, 1 cup spinach, ice. No honey — add a few drops of maple syrup if desired.
• Lunch: Grilled chicken on gluten-free flatbread with lactose-free cream cheese, cucumber, and rocket.
• Dinner: Baked cod with a herb crust (gluten-free breadcrumbs or just fresh herbs and olive oil). Serve with mashed potato (made with lactose-free milk and butter — butter is very low lactose).
• Snack: Lactose-free yogurt with kiwi or strawberries.

Why This Is Just the Starting Point

The seven-day low-FODMAP meal plan eliminates the most common IBS food triggers as a group. But within the FODMAP family, individual people react to very different subsets. Some people tolerate lactose perfectly but react strongly to fructans (wheat and onion). Others have fructose malabsorption but handle lactose and fructans fine.

The reintroduction phase — which starts after at least 2 weeks of elimination — is where you find YOUR personal FODMAP triggers. Each FODMAP category is reintroduced systematically, one at a time, over 3 days, with careful tracking of symptoms in the following 24–48 hours.

This reintroduction phase is where most people fail, because symptoms appear 6–48 hours after the challenge food — and without systematic logging, the connection is lost.