question about rice cakes and also Benefiber -- for Heather or anyone
#24130 - 10/21/03 08:13 PM
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barb n
Reged: 10/14/03
Posts: 65
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Hi. I bought some (brown) rice cakes today and noticed that they are listed as having 0 fiber. I don't understand that -- it seems like they would have both kinds of fiber --especially if they are a good "setback" food and "starting" food which is how I am advising my daughter to use them -- since she is limited by wanting to avoid wheat for now. Please educate me about this.
Also -- I wonder if you could explain to me how Benefiber works. It seems to differ from the other powders in that it does not thicken. My understanding was that the thickening, gelling process is what makes these soluble fiber supplements so helpful for IBS, so I don't understand how that works with the Benefiber. Thank you !!
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Hi - do a board search for rice and fiber - this topic has come up and I tried to do a detailed post on it a while back. In a nutshell, there is soluble fiber in those rice cakes, and they're a great snack.
The Benefiber non-gelling thing is very interesting, and something I actually just read up on recently as I was getting ready to add a soluble fiber supplement to the site.
What makes the soluble fibers turn to a solid gel in the glass is their viscosity. Interestingly, the viscosity is actually not related to their ability to hold water, or to form a gel with liquid in the intestines. Benefiber is made from guar gum. If you use plain guar gum, you can gel a whole big bowl of water with just a teaspoon (no kidding, I've done it). Benefiber hydrolizes the guar gum to drastically reduce the viscosity, so it doesn't gel. But it still has the water-soluble properties of a soluble fiber, and it still works the same way in your GI tract.
There are a lot more very technical chemical processes going on here, which I can't put into plain English, and which I'd be happy to be completely unaware of if it weren't for the fact that I just had to read all this kind of stuff when deciding what type of soluble fiber I wanted to carry.
In a nutshell, the Benefiber will work, as will all the soluble fiber supplements, and it's really just personal preference if you want the stuff to gel in the glass or not. It's going to work well in your gut either way. 
PS - the soluble fiber I chose, acacia (gum arabic) doesn't gel either. It looks and tastes darn close to Benefiber, but it's not hydrolized and it's organic. It's pretty cool stuff!
- 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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Hi Heather,
I loved how Benefiber didn't gel or change the flavor in my drinks when I used it, but it gave me horrible gas. Was it because it was hydrolized? Will acacia give some people gas too?
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- Jennifer
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Re: Acacia
#24170 - 10/22/03 10:57 AM
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Heather
Reged: 12/09/02
Posts: 7799
Loc: Seattle, WA
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Hi - I'm not sure if the guar gum is more likely to give you gas because it's hydrolized or not. But Benefiber does do this to some people - I'm at the point of thinking that there is never going to be one single type of soluble fiber supplement that is best-tolerated by everyone. I hope that acacia fits that bill, but I'm sure there will be exceptions.
But, acacia is not guar gum, or even related to it. And there is at least one clinical study of acacia showing that it was much less likely to cause gas and bloating than other supplements. The conclusion of the study was that acacia has "exceptional gastrointestinal tolerance". I'm getting the info up on the website right now.
- 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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- Jennifer
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