# Maltodextrin as cause, not cure, of IBS



## Moises

Deregulation of intestinal anti-microbial defense by the dietary additive, maltodextrin

Both Gottschall and Pimentel have promoted the Elemental Diet as an effective treatment of IBS. The primary ingredient of commercial Elemental Diets available from pharmacies is maltodextrin. Although maltodextrin is a polysaccharide, it has very weak chemical bonds, so is easily digested into glucose. Although Gottschall inveighs against polysaccharides, the fact is that she praises the Elemental Diet. And Pimentel has published a number of studies demonstrating that the Elemental Diet is the most effective treatment available against SIBO.

I only have access to the abstract given in the link at the top of this message. The abstract suggests that maltodextrin disrupts the microbiome. There are a number of accounts on this forum from users who tried the Elemental Diet (including two accounts from me). Their anecdotal results were mixed.


----------



## annie7

Moises--thanks for posting this.

i've been recently diagnosed with SIBO and have been reading about the elemental diet--including your very helpful posts about your experience with it. so i appreciate this information.

i had pretty much decided against trying the elemental diet anyway because of the expense and the fact that i am quite underweight.


----------



## jaumeb

AFAIK Gottschall never promoted the elemental diet. She promoted a home-made specific carbohydrate diet.


----------



## Moises

I have Gottschall's self-published book Food and the Gut Reaction. It was later picked up by a commercial publishing house and retitled.



> The many research reports indicating that the synthetic Elemental Diet is beneficial in intestinal diseases provide support for the Specific Carbohydrate Diet which can be used from home (3).





> The practical Specific Carbohydrate Diet aims for the same goals as the synthetic Elemental Diet: the reduction and change of bacterial growth and the maintenance of the optimum nutritional state of the patient (19).


I taker her reasoning to be:

1. There is substantial evidence from peer-reviewed journals that the Elemental Diet is effective in healing many digestive disorders.

2. The Specific Carbohydrate attempts to replicate with natural foods the healing properties of the synthetic Elemental Diet.

3. Therefore, the evidence supporting the Elemental Diet can be taken as evidence supporting the Specific Carbohydrate Diet.

Thus, I take her to be supportive of the Elemental Diet. I never heard of such a diet until I read her book. But I thought, from reading her book, that such a diet was only available by prescription. Only after I found out about Pimentel on this forum, did I learn that the Elemental Diet was available without prescription.

I understand why one might question whether Gottscahll "promoted" the Elemental Diet. It is true that she energetically promoted her Specific Carbohydrate Diet. Likewise, one might argue that Pimentel has promoted Xifaxan more energetically than Vivonex Plus. I suppose I could have more accurately written that "Pimentel and Gottschall both had positive things to say about the Elemental Diet,."


----------



## jaumeb

> Maltodextrin
> 
> ILLEGAL
> 
> This item is Illegal.
> 
> Maltodextrin is the worst of the small molecules of sugars. It is a very short chain of glucose molecules (derived from starch). The chances of digestion are practically nil. It therefore will feed bacteria and because of its particular structure, Elaine feels it is worse than even lactose.
> 
> source: Breaking the Vicious Cycle website


Elaine Gottschall was totally against maltodextrin and it is not allowed on her SCD diet.


----------



## Moises

jaumeb said:


> Elaine Gottschall was totally against maltodextrin and it is not allowed on her SCD diet.


I agree with you!

And yet . . .

Here is the ingredient list of Vivonex Plus, one of the premier Elemental Diets, that I could only find in a hospital pharmacy:

Maltodextrin (from Corn), L-Glutamine, Modified Cornstarch, L-Leucine, L-Arginine Acetate, Soybean Oil and less than 2% of Magnesium Gluconate, L-Lysine Acetate, Calcium Glycerophosphate, L-Isoleucine, L-Valine, L-Phenylalanine, Sodium Citrate, L-Threonine, Potassium Citrate, L-Cysteine Hydrochloride, Citric Acid, L-Methionine, L-Tyrosine, L-Histidine Hydrochloride, L-Aspartic Acid, L-Proline, L-Tryptophan, Disodium Phosphate, Potassium Chloride, Choline Bitartrate, L-Serine, L-Alanine, Glycine, Ascorbic Acid, Polyglycerol Esters of Fatty Acids, Taurine, L-Carnitine, Alpha-Tocopheryl Acetate, Zinc Sulfate, Potassium Sorbate and BHA and BHT and Tocopherols (To Maintain Freshness), Ferrous Sulfate, Niacinamide, Vitamin A Palmitate, Calcium Pantothenate, Copper Gluconate, Vitamin D3, Pyridoxine Hydrochloride, Manganese Sulfate, Riboflavin, Thiamine Hydrochloride, Folic Acid, Chromium Chloride, Biotin, Potassium Iodide, Sodium Molybdate, Sodium Selenite, Phytonadione, Vitamin B12.

So, which Elemental Diet did Elaine Gottschall think was good?

If I remember correctly, Pimentel said that the primary ingredient of the Elemental Diet is glucose. Yet he recommended Vivonex Plus and, as you can see in the ingredients ordered by weight above, its primary ingredient is maltodextrin.

I think part of the reason we are going back and forth on this is that there are different kinds of maltodextrin. It might be the case that some are more easily digestible into glucose than others. So, some might essentially be equivalent to glucose, of which Pimentel and Gottschall approved.


----------



## jaumeb

Thanks for all the information Moises. I see that the second ingredient is glutamine. I am supplementing with glutamine now. It doesn't seem to help with my D but it seems to help with the pain.


----------



## SiusannaJ

Maltodextrin in the gut of IBS sufferer may create salmonella-like environment.

http://giving.clevelandclinic.org/articles/researcher-links-digestive-problems-food-additive?utm_campaign=catalyst+enews&utm_medium=email&utm_source=catalyst1409&utm_content=researcher+links+digestive+problems+food+additive


----------

