Lunch
Roasted Carrot and Ginger Soup
40 minMedium
Coconut Milk (canned)
Dairy · Plant Milk
TLDRLast updated 4 September 2026
Half a cup of canned coconut milk (125 ml) rates green on 0.08 g of sorbitol, comfortably under the 0.2 g point where sorbitol starts to count. The number that trips people up is the one printed on the tin. Four hundred millilitres emptied into a curry for two puts close to a cup on each plate, which is double the serve the rating describes.
Last updated 4 September 2026Serving sizes for coconut milk (canned)
Half a cup (125 ml) is the tested serve, rated green. Sorbitol is the only group present.
0.5 cupsabout 125 ml
Tested serving sizes
| Serving | Amount | Main FODMAP | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1/2 cup | 125 ml | Sorbitol 0.08 g |
Breakdown for 0.5 cups
0gFructose
0gLactose
0gFructans
0gGOS
0.08gSorbitol
0gMannitol
0.5 cupsabout 125 ml
Is coconut milk (canned) low FODMAP?
Sorbitol is the single group recorded here, at 0.08 g in the tested half cup, less than half the 0.2 g figure at which a portion turns moderate. It is a sugar alcohol, and the amount on your plate tracks how much you poured, not how long the pan was on: reducing a sauce concentrates what is in it rather than driving it off. Coconut water shows how quickly that arithmetic moves. Half a cup of it carries the same 0.08 g and rates green, while a full cup reaches 0.2 g and turns amber.
Coconut Milk (canned) and IBS: what to know
The tin and the carton are different products with separate entries, and they are not rated together: coconut milk sold as a drink is diluted for pouring and has its own tested serve, so check it rather than assuming coconut is fine across the board. Restaurant portions are the other blind spot, since the amount ladled over your rice is out of your hands. Sorbitol also accumulates with whatever fruit you ate earlier, so a coconut curry after a stone fruit lunch asks more of you than either would alone.
Gut-friendly ways to eat coconut milk (canned)
Cook with it as you would with cream. A measured half cup will enrich a sauce for two if you make the volume back up with stock or water, and adding it towards the end rather than simmering it down for twenty minutes keeps the sorbitol spread through more sauce. Build the flavour on a low FODMAP curry paste, because most bottled pastes start with garlic and shallot and will undo the work. Serve it over white rice, which soaks up sauce without contributing anything of its own. Freeze the rest of the tin in half cup portions.
Recipes with coconut milk (canned)
Frequently asked questions
How much coconut milk can I have in a curry?
Half a cup per person is the tested amount and it rates green, which is a genuinely creamy sauce if you stretch it with stock. A whole tin split between two people is roughly double that each, and a takeaway curry is usually richer again. Measuring it into the pan rather than pouring straight from the tin is the whole trick.
Is canned coconut milk the same as the carton kind?
No, and it matters. The tin is a thick cooking ingredient, while the carton is thinned down to drink and appears in the guide as its own food with its own rating. Reading across from one to the other will give you the wrong portion in both directions, so look each up rather than treating coconut milk as a single item.
Is coconut cream low FODMAP as well?
Coconut cream is listed separately, because it is the thicker fraction and behaves differently by the spoon. Check its own tested serve rather than borrowing this one. In cooking the two are often swapped freely, which is exactly why it is worth knowing that the guide does not treat them as the same thing.
Why does coconut curry still cause bloating?
Sorbitol is only part of the picture at these amounts. Volume is the first suspect, since restaurant curries run well past half a cup a head, and the aromatics are the second, because onion and garlic go into the pan before anything else in most recipes. Fat is the third: a rich coconut sauce is heavy, and that can produce symptoms without any FODMAP involvement.
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