Psyllium husks, a centuries-old fibre supplement, entices a new generation

NEW YORK – Mr Victor Nevarez had tried dozens of prescription medications and powders to manage his irritable bowel syndrome and nothing was working.

Mr Max Wittek wanted to curb his appetite without relying on drugs such as Ozempic. And Ms Rachel Conners was just looking for a way to make chewy cinnamon rolls without any gluten.

They all arrived at the same solution: psyllium husks.

In a wellness economy that revolves around colourfully packaged supplements, boutique fitness classes and celebrity-endorsed diet pills, psyllium husks may seem an unglamorous throwback.

Derived from a shrub native to South Asia, where they have been used for centuries as a digestive aid, the husks look like the bedding in a hamster cage, taste like sawdust and turn gelatinous when mixed with water.

Yet, in the United States, they have become a hot-selling item.

From 2018 to 2022, 249 new psyllium-husk products were released in the country, according to data from the market research company Mintel.

Sales figures for such a splintered category are hard to come by, but a spokesman for mass-market product Metamucil – essentially sweetened, orange-flavoured psyllium-husk powder – said its sales have grown by double-digit percentages over the past several years.

Many of the new products are being put to work in the kitchen.

People on low-carbohydrate diets are using psyllium husks to bind meatballs. Home cooks are thickening sauces with them. Gluten-free bakers are using them in breads and cakes.

The husks lend bounce to gluten-free cinnamon rolls, without the bitter aftertaste that other additions can leave, said Ms Conners, 29, who writes the Bakerita blog from her home in San Diego.

“When you are working with gluten-free recipes, there are so many ingredients that work but just don’t taste right,” she said.

Psyllium husks are even more of a draw now when people are looking for inexpensive alternatives to new appetite-suppressing drugs.

Mr Wittek, 33, a software engineer in the New York City borough of Brooklyn who recently went on a ketogenic diet, has used psyllium husks to make his cauliflower-based pizza crust more filling.

Psyllium, he said, “shushes my belly from saying, ‘Please put something in me’”.

An increased awareness of gut health is also driving sales.

“Everybody is now cognisant that they aren’t getting enough fibre,” said Dr George Schaeffer, 38, a mathematics professor in San Francisco who started adding psyllium husks to his granola in graduate school to improve digestion.

Previous generations, he said, were not comfortable discussing bowel issues.

“Millennials and older Gen Z are totally fine with that stuff. We are looking for ways to improve our lives that are cheap.”

Unlike some more expensive health supplements, psyllium husks worked for him.

Dr Pieter Cohen, an internist at Cambridge Health Alliance in Massachusetts, said they can be helpful for constipation or diarrhoea, but “it’s not a wonder drug”.

He added that “getting enough fibre is important and the best way to do that is through real foods: fruit and vegetables”, which taste better than psyllium husks and contain other nutrients.

And not all psyllium-husk products, he cautioned, are the same.

He recommended avoiding those with added flavourings or sweeteners, which can be overly caloric, and taking psyllium husks with plenty of water as too much fibre and not enough water can lead to constipation.

He also advised against using psyllium husks as an appetite suppressant. It may curb hunger for a few hours, he said, “but then revs up our appetite a few hours later because we didn’t get any calories”.

Perhaps the people most bewildered by psyllium husks’ sudden popularity are South Asian Americans who grew up with the supplement as a staple in their medicine cabinets. Because the crop grows abundantly in India, it is widely consumed.

Ms Divya Jain, 28, a researcher at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City, recalled how her father mixed psyllium husks with warm milk and rice to help manage his digestion and blood sugar.

She was surprised when she recently visited a non-South Asian friend and saw psyllium husks in his cabinet.

“I was like, ‘What are you doing with this?’” she said. He had bought them because he has celiac disease and many gluten-free recipes call for psyllium husks.

Mr Sami Safiullah, 32, a data analyst in Boston, said his night-time routine is not complete without preparing a cocktail of psyllium husks and water.

“You have done something to help your digestion and you can get ready to relax,” he said.

But he worries that psyllium husks may become the next turmeric or ashwagandha – South Asian remedies appropriated by American wellness culture. “I wouldn’t want it to be the next feature on Goop,” he said. (Psyllium husks have, in fact, been featured by lifestyle brand Goop.)

When Mr Nevarez, 33, a YouTube host in Scottsdale, Arizona, first tried psyllium husks to combat his irritable bowel symptoms, he became a proponent for the supplement.

He made a video demonstrating how to blend psyllium husks with water. In the video, he cheekily refers to Metamucil as “Muce” and treats his psyllium husk concoction like a fancy cocktail.

That video caught the eye of audio-journalist Ahmed Ali Akbar, 35, whose perceptions of Metamucil had long been tainted by his father’s daily consumption of it.

As a child, “I was repulsed by the orange-stained glass in the sink”, he said. But a few months ago, he moved to Chicago and, suddenly, his digestion became irregular.

Now, he takes psyllium husks, not because of his father, but because of Mr Nevarez’s video.
NYTIMES