Irritable Bowel Syndrome Message Boards | Re: Heather: more help with soluble/insoluble

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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