[Sca-cooks] Insoluble vs Soluble Fiber, was RE: Foods for Invalids

[Terry Decker]

Ah, blancmange.  I made some for a feast a few years ago from a recipe using white rice flour, milk, sugar, and shredded chicken.  I separated the vegetarian's portion before adding the chicken.  It had the texture of soft library paste and was one of the most popular dishes in the feast..

As one ages, the digestion may change, making it harder to handle some insoluble fiber.  That can produce hard stool and constipation.  If the colon is not extracting water as it should you wind up with diarrhea.  Have both and you swing between the two.  Soluble fiber  can  help both conditions.  The precise issues and answers vary by person, so YMMV.

Bear

On 1/10/2023 1:09:25 PM, Christy <chefchristy at kingstaste.com> wrote:
OOH! You've hit on the question I am having the most trouble getting an
answer to! Soluble vs Insoluble fiber! And see, you hit on that first
thing! I've asked several medical professionals that very question and been
given many blank stares. When I posed the question to my GI surgeon, he
said (after telling me the diet portion wasn't rocket science): "Well now
you ARE making it Rocket Science!" LOL
(not a distinction they would have made in period, for sure.)
Insoluble fiber acts like a bottle brush and cleans the digestive tract,
while soluble fiber dissolves into the bloodstream and cleans deposits in
the blood vessels, among other important functions. Beans are on the no
list, but they have both soluble fiber, and skins wherein most of the
insoluble fiber resides. Most dietary recommendations do not differentiate,
although I have found one study that shows that women should reintroduce
soluble fiber first, which makes sense to me.

White rice is low in fiber. I know there is a long-standing tradition
revolving around Blancmange and invalid food. Maybe I should revisit a
Medieval Lenten Diet again this year and explore White Fish and Blancmange
variations again - LOL


-----Original Message-----
From: Sca-cooks
[mailto:sca-cooks-bounces+chefchristy=kingstaste.com at lists.ansteorra.org] On
Behalf Of Laureen Hart
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2023 1:30 PM
To: 'Cooks within the SCA'
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Foods for Invalids

Not having a large corpus on Scottish food in 1344 I would default to
strained oat gruel, sorry!
It is possible that the local nobles (with more money than my family) would
default to French medicine.

Now I need to go research that :)

Do you need low soluble or insoluble fiber, or both?
Low fiber is hard!!

Randell Raye of Crianlarich
________________________________
From: Sca-cooks
on behalf of
Christy
Sent: Tuesday, January 10, 2023 8:21 AM
To: 'Cooks within the SCA'
Subject: [Sca-cooks] Foods for Invalids

Greetings Cooks!



I have long been interested in the sections of period cooking and medicinal
writings aimed at foods for the infirm. Having just been diagnosed with a
gastric infirmity of my own, it is of even more interest than before. :/

For example, many of the early mentions of gruel are in medical treatises
that recommended it as food for invalids because it was nourishing and easy
to digest.

(My personal needs are currently for low-fiber foods, so broth is better for
me currently than gruel J )



I'm interested in seeing what various cultures consider healing foods. I'd
like to know what is said about seasonality and humoral influences, among
others.

What would your persona feed to an invalid?



Christianna, who is missing oatmeal something fierce



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