Overview
About jujube
Jujube, the Chinese red date, is sold almost entirely dried: wrinkled, chewy, caramel sweet, and central to Korean daechu tea, Chinese herbal soups and TCM tonics.
It grades high FODMAP (D) with polyols high (D) and excess fructose moderate (C), and it grades poorly for SIBO (D). That combination of sorbitol-type polyols plus concentrated sugar in a small dried fruit is a classic bloating and urgency trigger. On the chemical side it is quiet: low histamine, and only mild on salicylate and oxalate.
Sensitivities
How jujube scores
Watch for
What trips people up
- High FODMAP (D) with polyols the leading driver (D). Polyols are poorly absorbed and osmotically active, which is why a small handful can produce disproportionate bloating and loose stools
- Drying is the whole problem. A dried jujube is a whole fresh fruit with the water removed, so five of them off the snack bowl is a much bigger sugar and polyol dose than five pieces of fresh fruit
- Graded poor for low fermentation and SIBO (D), so it is one to park during a SIBO protocol rather than treat as a health food
- Simmering jujubes in soup, samgyetang or daechu-cha leaches their sugars into the liquid. Fishing the fruit out at the end does not remove the FODMAP load from the broth
- Reassuringly quiet elsewhere: low histamine (A), mild liberator (B), and only mild on salicylate and oxalate (both B)
Diet fit
Where it fits
Swap ideas
More alternatives
FAQ
Common questions about jujube
Are jujubes low FODMAP?
No. Jujube grades D for FODMAPs, in the high band, with polyols also at D and excess fructose at C. Dried fruit concentrates all three. If you are in the elimination phase of a low FODMAP diet, jujubes and jujube tea both belong on the pause list, and reintroduction is worth doing with two or three fruit rather than a bowl.
Are jujubes the same as dates?
No, and the trigger profiles differ. Jujube is Ziziphus jujuba, a buckthorn relative from China, while dates come from the palm Phoenix dactylifera. Both grade high FODMAP, but our data puts dates at D for salicylate and E for oxalate where jujube sits at B for both. If oxalate is your issue, jujube is the gentler of the two dried sweets. If FODMAPs are the issue, neither one helps.
Why do jujubes cause bloating and gas?
Polyols. Jujube grades D for polyols, meaning sugar alcohols that the small intestine absorbs slowly and incompletely. What is not absorbed pulls water into the gut and then ferments in the colon, which produces the gas, distension and urgency people notice an hour or two later. Excess fructose at C adds to it.
Is jujube tea gentler than eating the fruit?
Not much. Whether you steep sliced jujube for tea or simmer whole ones in a herbal soup, the fermentable sugars and polyols dissolve into the liquid. The tea is sweet precisely because they did. Sipping a small cup is a smaller dose than eating six fruit, but it is not a FODMAP-free version of the same thing.
References
Read the background
Ratings reflect the Triggerbites ingredient database and may vary with portion size and preparation.