Tips ease digestion of beans

By Environmental Nutrition  • 

The gastrointestinal issues that result from eating beans, put simply, are just gas — and normal gut bacteria are to blame.

The bacteria ferment indigestible sugars found naturally in beans that cause gas.

Beans, a healthy and inexpensive source of high-quality protein, are too important to pass up. So how can you eat them comfortably?

A few simple remedies might reduce or completely eliminate the gas issue.

• If you’ve just added beans to your diet, take it slow. Start out with a small amount of beans and see how well you tolerate them. Get your gut bacteria used to them. Try different varieties of beans to see whether some are easier to digest than others.

• Probably the simplest remedy is to take Beano, an over-the-counter natural enzyme that helps digest the usually indigestible sugars in beans.

• How the beans are prepared also affects their potential gassiness. Soaking raw beans before cooking, tossing out the soaking water and adding fresh water for cooking makes a big difference. Even rinsing canned beans helps.