psyllium husk

Psyllium is the seed husk of Plantago ovata, almost pure soluble fibre that swells into a gel with water. One recipe here uses it, the Carminative Digestive Gummies, at 5 g for a batch of 20, and it goes in last. A strong herb tea of cumin, fennel, aniseed, chamomile and mint is brought to a full boil with 4 g of agar and simmered for 2 minutes, sweetened with monk fruit, and only then is the psyllium whisked in hard and fast and spooned into silicone moulds. It thickens on contact and agar sets at about 40 °C, which leaves 60 to 90 seconds of working time.

The Journal's note on gluten and its replacements sets psyllium beside xanthan and the cellulose additive HPMC as replacements for the gluten network, and is candid that no ranking survives a change of flour. In one head-to-head, psyllium behaved much like xanthan, and HPMC gave higher loaf volume than either. At up to 13.2 g per 100 g of flour and starch, psyllium raised dough elasticity and also crumb gumminess and crust hardness. It does earn its reputation on staling, giving the softest, most resilient crumb and significantly slowing crumb hardening.

Once eaten, the library claims little. The recipe's arabinoxylan, the fibre that gels, adds gentle bulk and slows digestion, and the dose is 4 to 6 gummies at midday, about 1 to 1.5 g of psyllium, with a full glass of water because psyllium needs fluid to swell safely. The Journal's note on bloating smoothies meets it only as a comparator: a four-week crossover gave 184 people either two green kiwifruit or 7.5 g of psyllium. The fruit added 1.5 to 1.7 complete bowel movements a week in the two constipated groups, so the trial shows what kiwifruit did next to psyllium, with no placebo arm to show what psyllium does alone.