We love beans. We love them on their own, we love them in soups, we love them mashed into dips. But we definitely don't love some of their less fun digestive consequences. Apologies for the rather indelicate title and subject, but we felt this was one time when it was best to get right to the point!
The Musical Fruit: Why Beans Make Us Gassy
All beans - all legumes, really - contain a handful of carbohydrates that the enzymes in our stomach and small intestine can't break down into something our bodies can absorb. This means that those carbohydrates are largely intact when they enter the large intestine, where our natural bacterias are able to break them down.
Unfortunately, the more active the bacteria become, the more gas they produce. Meaning the more gas we produce.
It's always puzzled us why we'd sometimes have trouble with beans and not other times, and why some beans in particular seemed to give us more gas. Harold McGee in On Food and Cooking explains that soy, navy, and lima beans contain especially large amounts of the indigestible carbohydrates. When these or other beans give us trouble, it's usually because they either weren't soaked before cooking or they weren't cooked for long enough.
We can actually use that information to help prevent beans from making us gassy! Pre-soaking beans will help leach out most of the bothersome carbohydrates. We usually set beans out overnight in a bowl of fresh water and then discard the water before cooking. The downside of this technique is that you lose some of the nutrients, minerals, and vitamins as well.
The second option is to be sure to cook your beans long enough. The cooking beans low and slow eventually breaks down the carbohydrates so that our bodies are able to absorb them
without trouble. While this method takes time and patience, the positive is that all the good vitamins and minerals are retained.
Any other tricks for enjoying beans without suffering their side effects?
Related Recipe Basics: How to Cook Beans in the Slow Cooker
(Image: Flickr member sara.atkins licensed under Creative Commons)
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Health, Fruits and Vegetables, Ingredients - Pantry, Food Science, dried beans, beans, legumes, cooking beans, digestion, soaking beansRelated Links
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The best remedy? More beans! Since greatly reducing the amount of meat in my diet, I've upped the quantity and variety of legumes and grains I eat. After about 3-4 weeks, my digestive system adjusted and now my body and palate are very thankful.
view syrupandhoney's profile
syrupandhoney, glad it worked for you, but I've been eating beans at least 4 times a week for 23 years or so (esp. since I'm a veggie), and sometimes simply eating them all the time doesn't help. We all have different digestive tracts and sensitivities.
Avoiding canned beans, cooking them longer, soaking them, getting rid of all soaking liquid before cooking, additions of ginger, and asofetida (all tips listed in the link in the post above) are helpful, but don't completely do the trick. Still eat them all the time, but often end up feeling bloated anyway.
view lotusmoss's profile
So far as I've seen you're both right. i've never had a problem with beans or any high fiber foods so my personal biology is a big part of it. On the other hand, I can't digest meat.
But I also eat a good deal of white pepper, ginger, and probiotics so i'm not doing it alone ;)
view nico_forgot's profile
I recently started taking probiotic supplements (eg lactobacillus) in pill form daily, for general health reasons and found the BEST SIDE EFFECT EVER! After taking them daily for 3 weeks or so, I noticed MOST of my bloating/gas issues were GONE. Maybe it's just something with my body, but it's totally awesome. I used to feel bloated just looking at broccoli, beans etc.
I am mostly veggie, and have been cooking batches of beans for my work week lunches for the past couple of years. Eating them daily did not help me 'adjust'. Those probiotics were the best thing to happen to my belly in a long time!
view -jenny-'s profile
I've heard that it's helpful to skim the foam from the liquid while beans are cooking. I don't usually have problems digesting beans, so I'm not sure if it makes a difference or not, but I do it out of habit.
view Marta jest uparta's profile
"Kaka" is an accurate username...
view Damfino's profile
I've found quite of bit of difference how my system handles different types of beans. Navy beans are about the worst, pintos maybe not quite so bad, and black beans and chickpeas among the easiest to digest.
view Bobolink's profile