My life is to say the least "gummy" right now.  I would like to say that I am about to snap, but I snapped over a year ago.  I'm still trying to stand up, or rather sit up- out of bed- out of the dark- open the blinds- remove the fear- my chest cramps- i can't- lay back down- try again tomorrow.

FOOD GUMS: a group of complex carbohydrates that are water soluble (soluble fiber).  They have a high affinity for water (hydrocolloids) and give high-viscosity aqueous solutions, but are not able to form gels.  The reason for this is that all gums possess structures that incorporate a very high degree of branching or highly interrupted chains.  This prevents the formation of junction zones (such as in pectins) that are a feature of polysaccharide gels.

Food properties: food thickener, gel-forming agent, stabilizing agent, increase viscosity

Examples:
Xanthan gum.  Secreted via aerobic fermentation from Xanthomonas campestris.  Has a backbone of b(1->4)-linked glucopyranose with trisaccharide branch points every five residues.  *Gluten-free flours are often supplemented with this gum which help bind the dough together and retain gas bubbles produced by yeasts or chemical leavenings.

Locust-bean gum/Carob-bean gum.  Extracted from the seed of the carob tree.  A galactomannan consisting of a (1,4)-linked b-D-mannopyranose backbone with branch points from their 6-positions linked to a-D-galactose.

Guar gum/ Guaran.  From seeds of the guar beans.  The backbone is a linear chain of β 1,4-linked mannose residues to which galactose residues are 1,6-linked at every second mannose, forming short side-branches.

Gum arabic/ Acacia gum.  Made from the hardened sap of various species of Acacia trees.