Guar gum is a natural food supplement E412. It is a small crystals of dirty white color, which are perfectly soluble in water (regardless of its temperature and inclusions of other substances). Gum is extracted from the seeds of a pea tree, which grows massively in India, Pakistan, Australia, and Africa. In essence, the gum is a wood glue that forms if you damage the bark of the plant.
On the territory of our country, gum is used in the manufacture of food products both as a mono-ingredient for thickening, imparting viscosity and elasticity, and in combination with other food additives that are similar in their range of action.
Applications
Gum is widely used in the medical field and food industry, in the creation of various cosmetic means. She earned the greatest popularity as an excellent stabilizer and thickener. This food additive has excellent organoleptic properties: it is elastic and rigid at the same time, does not lose its properties when frozen or heated, and is not felt at all in the finished product.
Most often, guar gum is included in the production of products that come to the consumer chilled. For example, in ice cream, various cocktails and cold desserts, E412 slows down the formation of ice crystals, making the consistency remain stable for a long time.
Food supplement E412 - the best stabilizer for various dairy and meat products, toppings, jams, jellies, cheeses. It acts as a fixative of components in ketchups and white sauces, giving a more dense consistency to spices, oils and fats. Often guar gum, supplemented with agar, pectin or carrageenan can be found on the labels of dry soups, juice concentrates, ready-made salads, fish and canned meat, where they play the role of substances that improve the product structure. Found guar gum place in the manufacture of bakery products. Of course, when baking rolls E412 does not act as a binder and improves the viscosity of the component. However, the effect of the food additive on the final result is no less noticeable, because it acts like a baking powder (only much safer for health). Guar gum improves flour structure, makes it more airy, saturates with air. As a result, the bread rises better, it turns out softer and tastier.
How does guar gum affect the body?
Many, having noticed the frightening “E412” on the label, immediately carry a package of jam or ketchup that has not yet been printed into the bin. Stop! Do not rush to do the same! Guar gum has officially proven therapeutic effect on the human body, and is successfully used to get rid of some dangerous ailments.
Once in the body, guar gum behaves like fiber, and has a similar effect to it. It is only partially dissolved by intestinal microflora, “releasing” all the useful substances that lurk in it, which are absorbed through the intestinal walls into the circulatory system, and then spread throughout the body. For the rest, it acts like ballast, “clearing” and removing all toxins and slags on its way out of the digestive tract.
How is guar gum useful?
On its basis, drugs for diabetics and treatments for constipation are being created. Many dietary supplements, aimed at preventing atherosclerosis, also contain guar gum. Very often, nutritionists include drugs with guar gum in a program to cleanse the body, use it to combat excess fat accumulations.
When is guar gum justified?
- When it is necessary to solve the problem of constipation.
- With atherosclerosis.
- When you need to clear the blood of cholesterol.
- With diabetes, obesity.
- When it is necessary to clean the body of toxins, slags.
Guar gum is a natural physiological laxative. It stabilizes the work of the digestive tract, normalizes the natural microflora of the stomach. At the same time, in the composition of the food additive E412 there are substances that reduce the intensity of glucose absorption into the blood, restrain appetite.
According to its chemical content, gum is a natural polysaccharide enriched with galactomannans and fatty acids. Because of this, it reduces the level of fats, lyseridides and liporetides, shows a stable trend in the treatment of diabetes.
So E412 is one of the most innocuous, and sometimes even useful, natural additives in food. Avoid it or confuse with food additives of a chemical nature is certainly not worth it.
Maximum Permissible Uses
There is no allowable daily consumption of products, which include guar gum. It is proved that the food additive E412 can not harm health, so its use in food is not regulated. If we are talking about medications that are used orally, then each individual medicine has an individual dosage of guar gum. But, in any case, taking such drugs strictly in accordance with the instructions, you can avoid any unpleasant side effects.
Can guar gum be harmful?
There is no official evidence that the food additive E412 provokes the occurrence of any diseases or unpleasant conditions. The absence of cases of poisoning is explained very easily: guar gum is not absorbed in the intestine. But the good faith of manufacturers who claim that their products contain only this food additive is another matter.
Very often, for Russian manufacturers, there were cases when under the guise of guar gum they included other toxic additives in the composition of the products. And, if after their use there were unpleasant symptoms (nausea, flatulence, stomach pain), consumers blamed everything on guar gum.
