Digestive health plays key role in our active daily life; but maintaining proper bowel movements, i.e., being free from constipation, diarrhea, irritable bowel syndrome, inflammatory bowel disease, flatulence, bloating, and abdominal pain, is complex. Dietary fibers often are recommended to maintain proper digestive health, but none seems to provide a single comprehensive solution for overall maintanance of proper digestive health. Guar fiber, however, has emerged as a credible candidate for just such a solution. This review focused on summarizing the clinically observed effects of guar fiber on digestive health. Several clinical studies suggest the guar fiber normalizes both constipation and diarrheal conditions. Also, it was effective in alleviating the symptoms associated with irritable bowel syndrome. The studies suggest that a regular intake of 5 to 10 g/d guar fiber is effective to treat most of the morbidities associated with digestive health. Guar fiber is all natural. It may offer potential protection and promotion of digestive health both alone and when combined with probiotics as a synbiotic formula.
Keywords: Constipation; Diarrhea; Guar fiber; IBD; IBS; PHGG; Prebiotics; Probiotics.
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