Many vegans have a habit of checking through the ingredients on food packets to spot any of the less obvious animal-derived ingredients that manufacturers throw into all manner of products. Anyone who has spent even a little time checking ingredients is bound to have encountered guar gum. But what is this mysterious substance and – more importantly for the purposes of this article – is guar gum vegan?
To answer the more pertinent question first, guar gum is indeed vegan as it is produced from plants (more details of which are below). Guar gum is used as a food additive in a wide range of vegan-friendly food products and, according to some research studies, it might well have some health benefits, as we’ll explain later in the article.
First of all though, we’ll take a closer look at what guar gum is, how it’s made and the foods and other products in which is it most commonly found.
What Is Guar Gum?
Guar gum has similarities with another vegan-friendly food additive, xanthan gum, in that is it a polysaccharide (that is to say, a long-chain carbohydrate). Xanthan gum is produced through a process of sugar fermentation that utilises Xanthomonas campestris bacteria (hence the name).
How Is Guar Gum Made?
Guar gum, in contrast, is produced by extracting polysaccharides from guar beans that grow on the guar (or cluster bean) plant, known in botanical circles as Cyamopsis tetragonoloba. While there are some concerns that some xanthan gum could be produced using non-vegan products (for instance whey), this is not a concern with guar gum.
This is because guar gum is produced by applying various techniques (including soaking, splitting, roasting, sieving, grinding and drying) to the guar beans. The resultant whitish powder is added to various food products, most often as a thickener.
Nutritional Values of Guar Gum
Looking at the nutritional values of guar gum, it has a very high fibre content as it is a polysaccharide. Although there are usually only relatively small quantities of guar gum added to food products, having an ingredient that is high in fibre and that doesn’t contain fat or sugar has to be a positive thing (as is reflected by the potential health benefits as detailed below).
The Type of ‘Gaur’ That Isn’t Vegan
Just in case you thought we’d made a typo, note that guar gum has nothing to do with the gaur, which is a species of cattle also known as the Indian bison. Any gum (or other substance) made from the gaur would certainly not be vegan.
Guar gum also has nothing to do with Gwar, the thrash metal band from Richmond, Virginia that was formed in the 1980s and who – so we understand – are still going strong at the time of writing. So, we’re glad that’s all straightened out!
What Products Contain Guar Gum?
Guar gum is contained in numerous vegan-friendly (and other) food and drink products. It is often used as a thickening agent in soups, yoghurts and plant-based milks. Guar gum is also a key ingredient in many vegan ice creams (and other frozen desserts) as it helps to retard the formation of ice crystals, leading to a delicious, smooth finish. In addition, it remains stable when thawed and refrozen.
As guar gum is gluten free, it can be found in various gluten-free baked products, both vegan and non-vegan. For food applications that require extra thickness, guar gum is sometimes combined with (the also-usually-vegan) xanthan gum.
Aside from the many food and drink products that contain guar gum, the substance has many industrial applications too. It is used in the pharmaceutical industry, in cosmetics (in things like toothpaste and shampoo), the paper industry, and even in the production of explosives (as a waterproofing agent). Are explosives vegan? We’ll leave that for another day! Although it’s not good news for the environment, guar gum is also used extensively in the extraction of shale oil and gas as a thickener for fracturing fluids.
Is Guar Gum Safe to Consume?
Guar gum is on the list of EU-approved E numbers with the code E412. There have been various research studies undertaken over the years in relation to the safety and potential health benefits of guar gum. In the quantities used in food and drink products, there appears to be no health concerns. Although some people can have an allergic sensitivity to guar gum, this tends only to occur in industrial/manufacturing environments in which particles of guar gum become airborne and are inhaled.
As a water-soluble fibre, guar gum has been used as a laxative and has been found to ease constipation in clinical trials. It has long been understood that diets that are high in fibre are healthy for various reasons (including the lowering of cholesterol and blood sugar) and guar gum has been shown by some studies to help people with diabetes control their blood sugar levels. A placebo-controlled study also found guar gum helped people reduce cholesterol levels too, again this was in relation to people with diabetes.
Guar Gum: Conclusion
As we have seen, given that guar gum is produced from plants, it is perfectly fine for vegans to consume. Found in a wide variety of vegan and non-vegan food and drink products, there might even be some mild health benefits – and certainly nothing to cause concern – from consuming the substance. Given that the quantity of guar gum added to most products is small, there are unlikely to be any telling benefits though, and those seeking the many health benefits from dietary fibre should turn to whole grain vegan foods such as rye, mung beans (and other legumes), oats, nuts and seeds.
As a thickening agent (and an ingredient that stops crystals from forming in your favourite vegan ice cream), guar gum certainly serves a purpose and it certainly beats adding any animal-derived alternatives.