Overview
About Taro root
Taro has to be cooked, and that is the first thing to know about it.
The raw corm is loaded with needle shaped calcium oxalate crystals called raphides, which physically embed in skin and mucous membrane, so peeling raw taro barehanded leaves your hands itching and stinging for hours and a raw taste burns the mouth and throat immediately. Thorough boiling, steaming or baking destroys the effect, and properly cooked taro is a quiet food on our triggers: graded A for gluten, histamine and histamine liberation, nickel, glutamates, sulfites and nightshades, with a moderate B for FODMAPs that is a portion question. Note what we cannot tell you: taro is unrated for both oxalate and salicylates in our data, so if you are on a low oxalate protocol for kidney stones, treat it as untested rather than cleared.
Sensitivities
How Taro root scores
Watch for
What trips people up
- Never eat taro raw or undercooked. The corm carries needle like calcium oxalate raphides that cause instant burning, prickling and swelling in the mouth and throat. Cook it right through, and wear gloves or oil your hands when peeling to avoid the classic taro itch
- Our data has no oxalate rating and no salicylate rating for taro, so this page cannot call it low oxalate. Boiling and discarding the water is the traditional method for reducing what remains after cooking
- Graded moderate (B) for FODMAPs. A small side of cooked taro behaves very differently from a plate of it, so portion first before deciding taro is the problem
- Most purple taro flavour is not taro. Taro bubble tea, ice creams and lattes are usually built from an artificially flavoured and coloured powder, so a reaction to a taro drink is far more likely to be the powder, the dairy or the sweetener than the root
- Poi is cooked taro pounded to a paste and commonly left to sour for a day or more. That tang is fermentation, and a well soured poi is not the same diary entry as a freshly boiled corm if you are watching fermented foods
Diet fit
Where it fits
Swap ideas
More alternatives
FAQ
Common questions about Taro root
Why does raw taro make my hands and mouth itch?
Because of raphides, microscopic needles of calcium oxalate packed inside the raw corm. They puncture skin and mucous membrane mechanically and carry irritant compounds in with them, which is why the sensation is a sharp itch or burn rather than a rash. Cooking taro thoroughly breaks the effect down. Peeling it under running water, oiling your hands, or wearing gloves prevents the skin version.
Is taro high in oxalate?
Taro definitely contains oxalate, including the insoluble crystal form that causes the raw irritation, but we do not carry an oxalate grade for it, so we will not tell you where it sits on our scale. Practically: boiling taro and discarding the cooking water is the standard way to reduce it, and if you are managing kidney stones this is a food to discuss rather than assume about.
Is taro low FODMAP?
It is graded B, moderate, so it is dose dependent. Cooked taro as part of a mixed plate suits most sensitive guts, while taro as the whole starch component of a large meal is where bloating tends to show up. It is also worth cooling and reheating it, since cooked and cooled starchy roots behave differently in the gut than freshly boiled ones.
Is taro the same as ube, and why is taro flavour always purple?
They are different plants. Ube is a purple yam and is genuinely deep violet inside. Taro flesh is usually white or cream with fine purple flecks, and only some varieties are noticeably lilac. The intense purple of taro ice cream, taro milk tea and taro powder is nearly always added colour and flavouring, which is why a taro drink and an actual taro corm belong in your diary as two separate items.
References
Read the background
Ratings reflect the Triggerbites ingredient database and may vary with portion size and preparation.