In acute illness, fermentable fiber is effective in
reducing diarrhoea in patients after surgery and in
critically ill patients. It was shown that guar gum
(e.g. partially hydrolyzed guar gum) and pectin
were superior to soy polysaccharides.11–15 In non-
ICU-patients or in patients requiring long-term EN
the use of a mixture of bulking and fermentable
fiber would appear to be the best approach. Soy
polysaccharides, or soy polysaccharides combined
with oat fiber were effective to increase daily stool
weight and frequency during enteral feeding.16–19
But the effect was studied only in a small group of patients during a short period. There is only a small
study showing a beneficial effect of adding soy
polysaccharides to control bowel habits in patients
on long-term EN over 1 year.