[lk]

Opposite to what seems to work well for many others, I find that any soluble fiber I eat causes ma a lot of gas and bloating. Also, since I'm C type this causes overall bad motility and discomfort. Consequently I have found that if I eliminate soluble fiber from my diet - and still eat a lot of insoluble fiber, I can pretty much control my C. My problem is that I don't know which foods are high in soluble fiber, and I find myself day by day leaning the hard way. Do you have a good source (book, web-page etc.). I know you discuss soluble fiber in your book so I figured you would know. I actually have a couple of web pages, but they only list about 20 foods, and the 2 sites don't agree with each other on all the foods.Thanks for your help!

 

[Heather Van Vorous]

Hello - In general, high soluble fiber foods are what you would think of as "starchy" - things such as oatmeal, pasta, rice, potatoes, white breads, bananas. Insoluble fiber is in foods usually considered "roughage" - bran, whole grains, greens, seeds, etc. Most grains, fruits, and vegetables actually have some of each type of fiber. Typically, the outer coating (whether the bran on rice or wheat berries, the hull of cherries or corn kernels, the skin on potatoes or beans, etc.) is insoluble fiber. The inner flesh is soluble. You can usually gauge this just by looking or feeling. The difference between the skin and flesh of a pear, for example, or a kidney bean, is easy to see. So, if you eat bran cereals, whole wheat bread or pasta, greens such as spinach and kale, whole kernel corn, unpeeled fruit, unseeded cucumbers, etc. you should be getting a high amount of insoluble fiber. Since you are fortunate in that this does not cause cramps or rebound constipation for you, these foods should help your symptoms. I tried to give comprehensive lists of the two types of fiber foods in The First Year: IBS. A lot of info from the book is excerpted at http://www.firstyearibs.com and that section is under the Chapters link. It should be a helpful reference for you.Best, Heather

 

[lk]

Thanks, but the link did not work.

 

[lk]

Nevermind... the link just picked up the comma after it!