What if you have a cough while on the FODMAPS elimination diet? Can you use cough drops? To answer that question, I bought a selection of cough drops at the local pharmacy the other day, so I could study the list of ingredients in detail. I found several good options.
Halls Mentho-Lyptus Strawberry: Active ingredient: Menthol. Inactive ingredients: FD&C red no. 40, flavors, glucose syrup, sucrose, water. These sweeteners are not FODMAPS, so this one is OK, although I wish they wouldn't put food dyes in the product.
Halls Naturals Wild Cherry: Active ingredient: Menthol. Inactive ingredients: citric acid, elderberry juice, flavors, ginger, glucose syrup, lemon grass, sage, sucrose, water, white thyme.
Ricola Natural Lemon Mint: Active ingredient: Menthol. Inactive ingredients: citric acid, extract of lemon balm and Ricola's herb mixture (elder, horehound, hyssop, lemon balm, linden flowers, mallow, peppermint, sage, thyme, wild thyme), natural color (beta-carotene), natural flavors (lemon oil, peppermint oil), starch syrup, sugar. Starch syrup = glucose syrup, so no FODMAPS here.
If you are considering different flavors of the above brands, be sure to check the ingredients, as each one is a little different. For example, the Halls sugar free product I checked was sweetened with isomalt, which is a FODMAP. Ingredients to avoid: honey, high fructose corn syrup, isomalt and sugar alcohols (sorbitol, mannitol, xylitol, maltitol, or lactitol), maybe pectin (I am still looking into this one).
Great list on the cough drops! I have seen soy lecithin, microctrystalline cellulose or just plain cellulose added to a lot of OTC medications but have been unable to find an opinion on whether these are ok for FMers.. thoughts?
Posted by: Anne Marie | January 21, 2011 at 09:31 PM
Cellulose and soy lecithin would not be expected to pose any problems for people with fructose malabsorption or for those pursuing a FODMAPS elimination diet.
Posted by: Patsy Catsos | January 21, 2011 at 10:48 PM