Overview
About Amaranth
Amaranth is two foods sharing one name.
The plant is grown for its leaves across the Caribbean, West Africa, India and Southeast Asia, where it is cooked down as callaloo, chaulai, efo tete or bayam, and it is also grown for a tiny seed used as a pseudocereal. This entry covers amaranth as the plant and the leafy vegetable; the seed is tracked separately as amaranth grain and carries its own, different grades. As eaten here, amaranth is graded D for total FODMAPs, which is the high band, while it stays clean at A on histamine, histamine liberation, salicylates, nickel, gluten, lactose, free glutamates, sulfites and nightshade chemistry. That combination makes it unusually easy to place in an elimination diet as long as the portion is controlled.
Sensitivities
How Amaranth scores
Watch for
What trips people up
- Graded D for total FODMAPs, the high band, even though every individual FODMAP subgroup (fructans, GOS, excess fructose, polyols) is graded A. When the total is flagged but no subgroup is, portion size is doing the work: a side of greens behaves very differently from a bowl of callaloo
- Amaranth greens are almost never cooked plain. Callaloo, chaulai and efo tete are built on onion, garlic and sometimes coconut milk, and for most people with IBS the aromatics in the pot are a bigger FODMAP load than the leaves. Log the dish, not just the vegetable, or you will blame the wrong ingredient
- Oxalate is unrated for amaranth in our data. Do not read that as cleared. The separately graded amaranth grain entry sits at D for oxalate, so if you are on an oxalate-restricted diet treat the greens as untested rather than safe
- Clean at A on histamine and histamine liberation, so amaranth greens are one of the more usable leafy vegetables if you are managing histamine intolerance and have already cut spinach and tomato
Diet fit
Where it fits
Swap ideas
More alternatives
FAQ
Common questions about Amaranth
Is amaranth a grain or a vegetable?
Both, from the same plant family. The leaves are eaten as a green (callaloo in parts of the Caribbean, chaulai in India, efo tete in Nigeria) and the seed is eaten as a gluten-free pseudocereal. We grade them separately because the profiles differ: this entry covers amaranth as the plant and the leafy vegetable, while amaranth grain has its own page with a different FODMAP grade and a flagged oxalate grade.
Is amaranth low FODMAP?
Not by our grading. Amaranth is graded D for total FODMAPs, which is high, so it is not a free food on a low FODMAP diet. The nuance is that no single FODMAP subgroup is flagged, which points to overall load rather than one specific sugar. Small cooked portions are the sensible way to test it, and bok choy or collard greens are graded lower if you want a leafy green that does not need portion management.
Are amaranth leaves high in histamine?
No. Amaranth is graded A for both histamine content and histamine liberation, so it does not sit in the same category as spinach, tomato or aubergine for people with histamine intolerance. The usual caveat for any leafy green still applies: freshness matters, and greens that have been cooked and then held warm or refrigerated for days are a different proposition from greens cooked and eaten.
References
Read the background
Ratings reflect the Triggerbites ingredient database and may vary with portion size and preparation.