Post Punk Kitchen Forum

Has anyone had any experience with these? Dr. Oz recommended them. He said that they're the most powerful fiber pills around. It's not a brand (I don't think) but just a type of fiber.

I decided to get them. My Whole Foods got a ton in because so many people were asking about it after Dr. Oz recommended it. It's under the name Glucomannan. It's the brand NOW, which has gelatin capsules, so I have been emptying them out into water. So far so good!

i so thought this was spam.
youre vegan, do you really need fiber pills? i cant even imagine how much tp i would go through if i took any.

Ahaha, so true.

Buying pills and dumping the gelatin capsules doesn't do much for the animals. And like everyone else has said, it's pretty hard to not get enough fiber as a vegan.

Excellent points. I actually forgot to check for gelatin before I bought them (sometimes I forget that Whole Foods isn't all vegan since all the stuff I buy there is). I wouldn't have bought them if I had seen that first. I just started counting calories and when I was reading the reviews everyone talked about how full it makes them feel. That's the feeling I was looking for. Bathroom stuff has (luckily) never been an issue for me. Hunger is! I'd like to be the person who just muches on veggies when I am hungry, but I'm just not.

re the gelatin, everyone screws up once in a while, live and learn.
i used to eat a lot of konyaku in japan, where it's pretty common. it's a zero calorie thing and very common for dieting, and i don't remember ever seeing any side effects, but it was a food, not isolated into a supplement. never saw the capsules. i'd want to make sure i was drinking a hell of a lot of water if i took those pills, though, as it might be similar to psyllium (? can't remember) where if you don't dilute it with lots of water you risk impaction.

That's very interesting! Thanks :)

This is from Wikipedia. I didn't realize they're the same thing! Much better in real food form of course.

Konjac is grown in India, China, Japan and Korea for its large starchy corms, used to create a flour and jelly of the same name. It is also used as a vegan substitute for gelatin.

In Japanese cuisine, konjac (known as konnyaku) appears in dishes such as oden. It is typically mottled grey and firmer in consistency than most gelatins. It has very little taste; the common variety tastes vaguely like salt. It is valued more for its texture than flavor.

Ito konnyaku (糸蒟蒻) is a type of Japanese food consisting of konjac cut into noodle-like strips. It is usually sold in plastic bags with accompanying water. It is often used in sukiyaki and oden. The name literally means "thread-konjac."

How funny (and infuriating) that they've managed to take something which can be used instead of gelatin, and put it inside a gelatin capsule.

How funny (and infuriating) that they've managed to take something which can be used instead of gelatin, and put it inside a gelatin capsule.[/quote]

Good point!

My gastro put me on supplemental fiber. It made me severely constipated. My butt still hasn't recovered.

Hey, I know this thread was brought up by a spammer...but anyway, I'm vegan and sometimes take fiber supplements.

Usually I just drink some prune juice, but, it makes me pretty happy when I can actually poop every day. The amount of fiber I usually eat isn't enough for me to go every day; its totally genetic, my mom, cousin, aunt, we all don't go enough. I guess when I've done eat to live I was going every day, but unless I'm doing eat to live my fiber intake isn't enough to completely overcome my slow intestines. But its better than when I was in High School and not vegan. Seriously, taking 6 days between poops was not abnormal. Well, it was probably totally abnormal but I didn't realize it was.

Point is, it can be helpful for some vegans!

lycophyte, I'm with you. I have always had "issues" in that department so I think it's sort of dismissive to suggest that vegans can't have a problem with fiber intake. I definitely have less frequent problems since going vegan, but there have been times when the prunes and bean-tastic diet just don't cut it so I take fiber supplements.

I track my nutrient intake and, although I usually get 30-60 g of fiber a day, sometimes I get less than recommended 30 g.

I have only tried konjak (is that pronounced like cognac?) in the form of shirataki noodles.

yeah, these'll help someone lose weight because you'll be so repulsed by food after having these. They're inedible.

I like them!

There's also konjac facial sponges, for example:

http://store.veganessentials.com/dew-pu ... p3664.aspx

They smelled fishy, but after boiling they were OK. I would eat them more often, but they aren't available here.

ditto.

gag! I physically can't get my body to swallow them. It does not compute as food, but rather as rubber bands.

Mmmmm delicious rubber bands.

Everyone's different, but I've recently discovered that too much fibre acts as an off switch for my bowels. If I have a meal without something like protein to break it up, I get incredibly, distressingly constipated.

I tried the psyllium thing, hoping it would fill me up or regulate my IBS or something, but it once formed a bung that got stuck in my stomach, resulting in terrible pain and violent vomiting. How do I know it formed a bung? I felt it come back up, intact. So, basically, I advise against fibre supplements unless you really have to. It's made me a bit suspicious of flax as well.

If you want food that'll help you lose weight and fill you up, eat beans in soups and stews and chilli etc. Beans are the dieter's best friend.

Hematochezia is the fancypants word for bloody stools, which can result from too much fiber intake.

The more you know!

(you have to ingest *a lot* of fiber for this to happen, but I can't imagine supplementing an already high-fiber diet would be a good idea, unless one had other medical issues that might require supplements).

Gulliver: Flax is how you get your Omega-3s, not your fiber.

Flax seeds are also very, very high in fibre. I buy flax oil!

It wasn't spam! :) I swear! It was just me asking a question in a way that seemed like spam.