Heather: need help with soluble/insoluble
#6752 - 04/22/03 09:24 AM
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jennifer
Reged: 04/22/03
Posts: 7
Loc: Arcata, CA
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Hi Heather and Eating for IBS'ers! I have ulcerative colitis and am on the Specific Carbohydrate Diet (SCD), which is no carbs except honey, fruits and most vegetables, and some beans, but I also am one of the minority of IBD'ers that have trouble with constipation. I am looking to see how Heather's model of the soluble/insoluble fiber balance can be addressed within my diet. Strictly speaking, SCD discourages the use of psyllium and methylcellulose so I am trying to devise a way to get my fiber balance right with just plant foods (although I am open to trying fiber supplements at some point). Heather - my thinking right now is to increase my soluble fiber intake, and distribute it evenly through out the day, and have it be the first thing I eat on an empty stomach. My choices seem to be applesauce, bananas, mushrooms, avocados, cooked and/or pureed carrots, beets, squash, mangos, and papayas. Also, since I can have lentils, white beans, and black beans I am thinking that I could cook them and run them through a food mill to take out the skins. Also, split peas - looking at them it seems like the skin is already off and that I may not need to run them through the food mill - what do you think Heather?. Although SCD prohibits grains, there are similarities in how vegetables are treated (peel, seed, cook, puree especially for beginners) and also the concept that D is just at another end of the bowel disfunction spectrum from C and that they can be treated by the same approaches! However, if both your model and the SCD model of bowel disfunction are correct (obviously many success stories with both diets), it underscores how important it is to distinguish IBS from IBD. Thanks for any attention you can give this. Jennifer
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Hi Jennifer - The SCD diet has one heck of a following among IBD folks, and I've heard far too many success stories to think that it doesn't really work miracles for a lot of people. I'm really glad that it's working for you.
I think your ideas for combining the SCD guidelines with the extra soluble fiber should work really well. The foods you've named, and your ideas for milling/pureeing beans and lentils, should make things really tolerable. The root vegetables in particular would be a great soluble fiber base for meals.
If you have access to an Indian market, you should be able to find some flat breads, crackers, and crepe-type batter mixes that are made with chickpea and lentil flour. There should also be items made with split peas (probably called dal). This might give you some more choices, especially if you can eat the batter mixes for things like dosas. You just add water and can make what's like a pancake or crepe that you can then stuff with your cooked veggies. You can also get pappadams, which are large round crispy lentil wafers. Just microwave for about 30 seconds and they'll get all bubbly and crispy, and you can snack on them or eat them with chutneys. They're delicious!
Please keep me posted on how things go, and if you have any other questions.
Oh - and what about using Benefiber, which is just guar gum? It's soluble fiber from (I believe) seaweed. There's also a product called Fiberrific, which you'd have to mail order, that's made of inulin, which is derived from chicory root. It might be helpful if we could find a supplement that would fit into the SCD guidelines for you.
Best,
Heather
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Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!
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Hello again, Heather. Thanks for your reply. Also, you put whole peas (the peas taken out of the pod and like what is sold as frozen peas or petite peas?) on the insoluble fiber list. I am guessing that that would be from the outer skin and not from the inside. Looking at the dried split peas, do you think that they are mainly soluble fiber? It kind of looks like they don't even have an outer skin, unlike lentils, but correct me if I am wrong.
Also, how do you determine the soluble/insoluble fiber content of a food - is that broken down somewhere specifically?
Also, just for your information, SCD doesn't allow any commercial bean products because the beans have to be soaked overnight before eating them to make them SCD legal (too bad!). Also all gums, seaweed products, and inulin are also illegal because they are multisaccharides that feed the bacteria that cause the IBD inflammatory response, according to the SCD model. (veggies and beans have multisaccharides too, but apparently can, in general, be tolerated).
Thanks a bunch, Jennifer
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Hi - You're right on about the peas - the tough skin is insoluble fiber, but the soft interior is soluble. I honestly don't know about split peas - they don't look like they have a skin at all. I'd soak and cook a spoonful and see what happens. If there is a skin there you'll see it when you mash down some of the cooked peas. If there's nothing, that's great. If you do see some skins, cook the peas very, very well, and then run them through a food mill or blender.
In general, the "smushable" rule works pretty well to give you a quick gauge of whether there's soluble or insoluble fiber in a fruit/veggie/grain/bean. Something that can smush - a banana, the flesh of a pear (versus the skin), the inside of beans, etc. - is usually soluble fiber. If it's not smushy but is a tough or stringy skin, hull, seed like a spinach leaf stem, grape skin, pineapple, etc. that's insoluble fiber. Cooking any insoluble fiber makes it much, much easier on the GI tract (picture cooked versus raw carrots). There are actually several posts on the board with links to fiber charts...unfortunately I can't find them with a quick search! But they are here, somewhere...
No commercial bean products...hmmm, does this apply if the beans were soaked overnight before they were used by the manufacturer? I don't know how you'd verify this with the Indian food, but my hunch would be that they have soaked the beans because that is such a traditional step, and these foods are usually imported from India. Might not be worth taking a chance, though...Is this true for lentils too? What about bean/lentil flours? Can you use those? If you can, you may find some workable recipes in Indian cookbooks or in gluten-free cookbooks, which would automatically be avoiding wheat, oats, and spelt (though not rice).
What about konjac for a soluble fiber supplement? It's a high soluble fiber root veggie. The soluble fiber itself is called glucomannan. You can order it online too - I've actually got a bag and it definitely works. I think the website for glucomannan actually talks about the saccharides and gives the molecular structure of the supplement - the site is at http://www.glucomannan.com/
If konjac is an option, you can actually get noodles and other foods made from it. They're staples in Asia but available on line.
Oh - I know homemade yogurt is a big part of the SCD diet. Can you do it with soy instead of dairy and still be within the SCD requirements? I've always wondered about that...
Best,
Heather
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Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!
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Heather, Thank you so much for such a complete answer. I will definitely file that information on glucomannan. On SCD, lentils also have to be soaked and one would definitely have to verify that when buying manufactured legume products. Soy is also prohibited on SCD - but I was just reading a reference to sesame yogurt, but no recipe. Have you every heard of it? Thanks for being so accessible on this board. Jennifer
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Hi - Glad the glucomannan might be an option - that would great. Bummer about the lentils though. But if you're into cooking and have the Indian market access, you could get a good Indian cookbook and start playing around with making your own dosas and such.
I haven't ever heard of sesame yogurt - what would be the base of that? A sesame paste like hummus? That seems really odd. Anyone on the board know about sesame yogurt?
I have heard from folks who find goat's milk more tolerable than cow's. I'd bet you could make yogurt from that.
Best,
Heather
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Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!
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Quote:
I have heard from folks who find goat's milk more tolerable than cow's.
I was just going to ask about that! I can get goat's milk, either refrigerated or aseptically packaged, and I think my boyfriend might like it better than soy milk, but I didn't want to waste my $3 if it was going to make me sick. So I could try it after all? Yippee!
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Well, be careful. I've heard from folks who can't tolerate it too. I've never tried it myself. But for making homemade yogurt when soy isn't an option it was the only other thing I could think of. 
Let me know what you think of it if you give it a try.
- H
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Heather is the Administrator of the IBS Message Boards. She is the author of Eating for IBS and The First Year: IBS, and the CEO of Heather's Tummy Care. Join her IBS Newsletter. Meet Heather on Facebook!
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I found out about sesame yogurt (from Healing with Whole Foods by Paul Pitchford - a chinese medicine oriented book). It is soaked and blended sesame seeds (or sunflower seeds or almonds) and water and fermented with rejuvelac (the water from fermented grains) or other starter. YOu can also do this with oats! There is a whole world of fermented foods out there that one could get into. But just the seed and nut milks are great products. I plan to try your almond Horchata (sweetened with honey..).
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Hi I also am on SCD but I am making the choice to switch to the IBS diet which I feel is totally the opposite. But I have IBD and IBS very confusing. I've been on
SCD for 9 months and I'm still having some problems. Are you going to add breads also?
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