This month’s blog provides 5 reasons to love the prebiotic fibre PHGG, plus a behind the scenes look at how a new product is born.

A few years ago after a colonoscopy my gastroenterologist recommended a well-known fibre supplement to help keep me regular and minimize straining.

I gave it a try, and whilst it mixed easily in water and did the job, I also experienced bad tummy pains, not something I wanted daily.

I tried another brand, but with this one I struggled with its strong artificial flavour, yuck!.

It turns out I’m not the only one needing to add fibre to my diet. Getting enough fibre can be especially hard for people on a gluten-free or low fodmap diet. Which is one reason why Josephine and I put together our Superflora shakes with a blend of 5 different fibre sources adding up to a whopping 7g of fibre per serve. Finally! I had a great source of fibre that my tummy and tastebuds actually enjoyed. Happy days.

Our shakes are substantial and filling. I love them blitzed with milk and fruit or peanut butter for breakfast or lunch.

In the back of my mind though I wondered if we could also develop something similar to those products that I’d previously tried…just without the tummy pains or yucky artificial flavours and colours.

We wanted something that could be simply stirred in water as a quick option when you don’t want a shake, something that worked as an easy and enjoyable morning gut health ritual.

The idea for our Daily Gut Health Boosts was born. We’d add in a probiotic too and flavour them with the real fruit powders we’d discovered when developing our shakes. We’d make them so delicious that you’d actually look forward to having them daily.

The question then was: what fibre type to use? It had to be gluten-free and low-fodmap, and also have good clinical evidence for its gut health benefits.

We looked again at the fibre sources in our shakes and also talked to manufacturers of some new functional fibres, including one very hush, hush blend that isn’t even in the market yet.

Constipation

A Greek study published in 2014 investigated the effect of just 5g of PHGG a day for adults with chronic constipation (Polymeros et al. 2014). The investigators measured colon transit time (the time for food to move through the large intestine) and constipation symptoms. They found that 4 weeks of PHGG accelerated colon transit time and improved symptoms including frequency of bowel movements, laxative use and days with abdominal pain.

Bowel motility tends to slow down as we age and many older people use laxatives to treat constipation. I found a couple of studies investigating the effects of PHGG in this group. For example, a recent randomized control trial in a long term care facility for the elderly in Hong Kong (Chan et al. 2022) looked at the effects of drinking 5g of PHGG dissolved in water per day. After 3 - 4 weeks, the PHGG group needed significantly less laxatives than the control group.

Irritable Bowel Syndrome

PHGG helps to normalise stool form and frequency in IBS patients too. An Italian study (Russo et al. 2015) conducted with participants who had the constipation predominant form of IBS, found that stool form, colon transit time and laxative use improved with PHGG.

Similarly a 3 month long, Japanese, randomised clinical trial (Yasukawa et al. 2019) that included participants with diarrhoea predominant IBS also found that 5g of PHGG daily led to a normalisation of the stool form – (helping participants get closer to 4 on the Bristol Stool Chart).

You simply stir 10g in ½ a cup of chilled water to make a beautiful drink.

The Boosts don’t contain any synthetic flavours or sweeteners. They are gluten-free and we carefully worked on the recipes to keep them low-FODMAP at the recommended serving size. A single serve provides the 5g of PHGG the clinical studies recommend, plus 1 billion CFU of our probiotic and a powerful fruity flavour.

Most of the studies described above lasted from a few weeks to a few months. Consistency appears to pay off with PHGG. Benefits built steadily and then waned once participants stopped taking the PHGG. It’s best to develop a daily gut ritual of having a Boost before breakfast and stick with it.

Enjoy!

Written by: Dr Mary Webberley, Chief Scientific Officer at Noisy Guts. Mary has a background in biology, with two degrees from the University of Cambridge and post-doctoral research experience. She spent several years undertaking research into the diagnosis of IBS and IBD. She was the winner of the 2018 CSIRO Breakout Female Scientist Award.

References:

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Chan, T. C., Yu, V. M. W., Luk, J. K. H., Chu, L. W., Yuen, J. K. Y., & Chan, F. H. W. (2022). Effectiveness of Partially Hydrolyzed Guar Gum in Reducing Constipation in Long Term Care Facility Residents: A Randomized Single-Blinded Placebo-Controlled Trial. The journal of nutrition, health & aging, 26(3), 247–251. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12603-022-1747-2

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Miyoshi, M., Shiroto, A., Kadoguchi, H., Usami, M., & Hori, Y. (2020). Prebiotics Improved the Defecation Status via Changes in the Microbiota and Short-chain Fatty Acids in Hemodialysis Patients. The Kobe journal of medical sciences, 66(1), E12–E21.

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Polymeros, D., Beintaris, I., Gaglia, A., Karamanolis, G., Papanikolaou, I. S., Dimitriadis, G., & Triantafyllou, K. (2014). Partially hydrolyzed guar gum accelerates colonic transit time and improves symptoms in adults with chronic constipation. Digestive diseases and sciences, 59(9), 2207–2214. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10620-014-3135-1

Reider, S. J., Moosmang, S., Tragust, J., Trgovec-Greif, L., Tragust, S., Perschy, L., Przysiecki, N., Sturm, S., Tilg, H., Stuppner, H., Rattei, T., & Moschen, A. R. (2020). Prebiotic Effects of Partially Hydrolyzed Guar Gum on the Composition and Function of the Human Microbiota-Results from the PAGODA Trial. Nutrients, 12(5), 1257. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu12051257

Roediger, W. E., & Moore, A. (1981). Effect of short-chain fatty acid on sodium absorption in isolated human colon perfused through the vascular bed. Digestive diseases and sciences, 26(2), 100–106. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01312224

Russo, L., Andreozzi, P., Zito, F. P., Vozzella, L., Savino, I. G., Sarnelli, G., & Cuomo, R. (2015). Partially hydrolyzed guar gum in the treatment of irritable bowel syndrome with constipation: effects of gender, age, and body mass index. Saudi journal of gastroenterology : official journal of the Saudi Gastroenterology Association, 21(2), 104–110. https://doi.org/10.4103/1319-3767.153835

Sakai, S., Kamada, Y., Takano, H., Ichikawa, M., Kurimoto, M., Katsuyama, H. K., Nishihira, J., & Sasaki, M. (2022). Continuous partially hydrolyzed guar gum intake reduces cold-like symptoms: a randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blinded trial in healthy adults. European review for medical and pharmacological sciences, 26(14), 5154–5163. https://doi.org/10.26355/eurrev_202207_29304

Takahashi, H., Wako, N., Okubo, T., Ishihara, N., Yamanaka, J., & Yamamoto, T. (1994). Influence of partially hydrolyzed guar gum on constipation in women. Journal of nutritional science and vitaminology, 40(3), 251–259. https://doi.org/10.3177/jnsv.40.251

Yasukawa, Z., Inoue, R., Ozeki, M., Okubo, T., Takagi, T., Honda, A., & Naito, Y. (2019). Effect of Repeated Consumption of Partially Hydrolyzed Guar Gum on Fecal Characteristics and Gut Microbiota: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, and Parallel-Group Clinical Trial. Nutrients, 11(9), 2170. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu11092170