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Which is very annoying. Btw, what dose were you on...1/4 tsp once a day?
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When some IBSers say acacia makes them worse, I've always wanted to know: at what point? I mean, let's say you've been eating a high SF diet for a while and then you start having 1/4 teaspoon of acacia a day. Do you immediately get more gas, bloating, cramping? If so, then at such a low dose, it almost seems like that would be an allergy, doesn't it? I'd think that in the context of a high SF diet anyhow, 1/4 teaspoon of acacia would just get lost in the noise so it hardly seems like it could be just the fiber-ness of it.
Or does the gas, bloating, cramping not happen until you've worked your way up quite a bit?
I haven't tried acacia, but I've tried several other fiber supplements. I started at an incredibly low dose and every time ended up with D, gas, and agonizing cramps (the kind where you wish you were dead). Generally it was within a day or so. My diet is very high-SF. In fact, that is probably 90% of my diet. (I know, I know, not healthy.)
Note, I haven't tried every fiber supplement -- I've stayed away from the ones with artificial sweeteners and psyllium. But if the "safe" ones cause such a bad reaction in me I hate to think what the iffier ones would do. Force my husband to finally start work on that second bathroom, maybe. 
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jen
"It's one of the most serious things that can possibly happen to one in a battle -- to get one's head cut off." -- LC
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I haven't tried acacia, but I've tried several other fiber supplements. I started at an incredibly low dose and every time ended up with D, gas, and agonizing cramps (the kind where you wish you were dead). Generally it was within a day or so. My diet is very high-SF. In fact, that is probably 90% of my diet. (I know, I know, not healthy.)
See, this is so interesting. A half-cup of applesauce contains 1 gram of SF; 1/2 cup of oatmeal contains 2 grams of soluble fiber. One-quarter teaspoon of acacia - which seems to have more SF per teaspoon than any other SFS - has .625 grams of SF. Presumably, if you took different SFS they contained different kinds of fiber so how could it be an allergy? And if you started at a low dose, you were getting far less than 1 gram of SF. Why would a body tolerate a high-SF diet, but rebel when confronted with less than 1 gram of SF from an SFS? I really want to be around when "they" finally figure out IBS and can answer that one.
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Note, I haven't tried every fiber supplement -- I've stayed away from the ones with artificial sweeteners and psyllium. But if the "safe" ones cause such a bad reaction in me I hate to think what the iffier ones would do. Force my husband to finally start work on that second bathroom, maybe.
LOL. I know that feeling - there's nothing like being an IBS person in a two-person house with one bathroom.
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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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Sand,
I was on the lowest dose of acaia and I got the major cramps/D on the 3rd day of taking it. I get plenty of soluble fiber on a dialy basis, so it's not that I'm not used to SF. It was rejected by my body, I feel pretty sure about that!
Laura
When you say "the lowest dose", do you mean the 1/4 teaspoon I used in my question or do you mean the lowest maximum dose given on the packaging? If you were on the lowest maximum dose, I assume you were okay while you worked up to it and then suddenly hit some magic amount and started having problems?
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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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Hi Sand,
I actually do mean 1/4 tsp. I never did work up to a higher dose. The cramps were the worst I'd had in quite some time and I had not eaten anything unsafe, so I had to blame it on the acacia. Haven't tried it again since and I doubt I will. I know it's very confusing. How can such a small amount cause such a big reaction, but sometimes you've gotta listen to your gut and I it told me "No"!
Laura
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Someone else was...Dalia or Panda I think??? Anyway, not worth pushing allergies. Btw, do you get hayfever?
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This really does sound like an allergy. Ouch! And I absolutely agree that when your gut says, "No", you have to listen. It has such an ugly way of punishing you if you don't!
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[Research tells us fourteen out of any ten individuals likes chocolate. - Sandra Boynton]
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I haven't tried acacia, but I've tried several other fiber supplements. I started at an incredibly low dose and every time ended up with D, gas, and agonizing cramps (the kind where you wish you were dead). Generally it was within a day or so. My diet is very high-SF. In fact, that is probably 90% of my diet. (I know, I know, not healthy.)
See, this is so interesting. A half-cup of applesauce contains 1 gram of SF; 1/2 cup of oatmeal contains 2 grams of soluble fiber. One-quarter teaspoon of acacia - which seems to have more SF per teaspoon than any other SFS - has .625 grams of SF. Presumably, if you took different SFS they contained different kinds of fiber so how could it be an allergy? And if you started at a low dose, you were getting far less than 1 gram of SF. Why would a body tolerate a high-SF diet, but rebel when confronted with less than 1 gram of SF from an SFS? I really want to be around when "they" finally figure out IBS and can answer that one.
This doesn't make sense to me, either. It makes me mad because I still haven't stabilized and SFSes are supposed to help so much! I keep going back to the SFS shelves at the store to see if there is anything new or that I have missed. The pharmacy people probably know me by sight and feel sorry for the girl who must have hideous C to be always hanging around the laxatives! 
I do have a definite bad reaction to gums, which I didn't figure out until I realized I always had an attack if I ate even a small amount of gummi candy. But, that only explains the SFSes that are guar gum or arabic gum (are there any other kinds?). Maybe it's just the "etc." stuff in the other fibers? I think Heather says Acacia and Benefiber are the only 100% fibers out there.
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jen
"It's one of the most serious things that can possibly happen to one in a battle -- to get one's head cut off." -- LC
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I thought I was taking only 12 gms but realized that I was on 20 when I compared the doses of acacia per tsp on the bag vs the can. Here's Heather's repy to me question about this difference back on 4/26:
here's the difference. There are 7.5 grams of fiber in one level tablespoon of Acacia, or 2.5 grams in one level teaspoon. The can label reflects these numbers.
The bag label reflects a SCANT tablespoon dose, not a LEVEL tablespoon, and one scant tablespoon has 4.5 grams. Is this confusing? Darn right it is! Which is why we are re-designing the Acacia bag label so that it will be exactly the same as the can label. The new bags will be out in a few weeks.
Sorry for the confusion.
- H
However, I stopped rather than decreased my dosage b/c at the end of April I also read a post from someone who said that acacia caused her to have alot of gas.
I've worked up to 2 T per day of Benefiber (6 gms total) over past 2 months and I'm still having daily bloat that increases thru the day but much less gas. I'm not sure what to do now b/c I'm still in pain alot of days.
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Many years of C-IBS and pain too for past 2 years-
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...you need to keep on increasing your dose slowly until you get to around 10g at least. 6g probably isn't enough to help much with cramps.
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