How can foods have both soluble and insoluble fiber?
Most all grains, cereals, legumes, and tubers have an outer insoluble fiber layer, and a soluble fiber interior (and the same is true for some fruits and vegetables, such as apples and zucchini). It’s very easy to actually see this with your own eyes. If you take a cooked grain of brown rice, wheat berry, kernel of corn, potato, or bean you can separate the tough exterior (the bran, skin, or shell) from the creamy interior. When the bran is removed from wheat berries and they’re milled the result is white flour; when the bran is removed from brown rice the result is white rice. There aren’t many similar common commercial processes that remove the insoluble fiber exterior from legumes, fruits, or vegetables, but finely blending, pureeing, or peeling these whole foods will greatly minimize their trigger risk. Oatmeal, brown rice, and corn meal (polenta) tend to be the best-tolerated whole grains for IBS.
