Beans Don’t Have to Create Gas – Learn 7 Ways to Avoid Gas

Getting gas from beans is a significant reason why so many people avoid them. Beans are a superfood with many benefits. There are 1,000 varieties, including beans, peas, lentils, garbanzo beans (chickpeas), and peanuts.  Yes, peanuts are a bean.

“Beans, beans,

The magical fruit,

The more you eat,

The more you toot!

The more you toot,

the better you feel

So let’s eat beans

With every meal.”

OK, that was a cute little ditty, but really, I would rather not be tooting.  I am sure you feel the same way. I am happy to say that when I eat a bean dish made from beans I prepared, I do not have gas or toot.

Why Eat Beans, Peas, Lentils & Peanuts

• • High in protein – 1/2 cup (4 ounces) of cooked beans is equivalent to eating two ounces of lean protein. The guidelines recommend that most adults eat about 5 1/2 ounces of lean meat a day.
  • Lots of fibre – ½ cup serving of cooked dry beans has 4 to 10 grams of fibre.
  • Rich in complex carbohydrates.
  • Contain iron, zinc, calcium, selenium, and folate.
  • Rich in antioxidants.
  • Low in fat.
  • Provide a low glycemic index.
  • Research has shown that the legume family may help to reduce chronic diseases, such as heart disease, diabetes mellitus, inflammatory diseases, osteoporosis, depression, obesity, cancer, and stroke.
  • In some Eastern cultures, legumes have been a staple of the diet for more than 20,000 years.

So why don’t we eat lots of beans?

GAS is the short answer!

The truth is, beans do cause many people to have GAS in the intestines for a very real reason. 

Beans contain triple sugar, stachyose, a quadruple sugar, raffinose, and a five sugar, verbascose, that we cannot digest. We are missing an enzyme that is required to break down these sugars. When the beans reach the colon, the bacteria there begin to ferment these sugars, producing gas in the process.

If you gradually increase the number of beans you eat over several weeks, most people will overcome this, provided you make a few simple changes to how you cook them and the combinations you eat them with.

The benefit of eating more of these sugars in beans is that they promote the growth of intestinal bacteria, which create a colon environment that lowers the risk of cancer.

7 Ways to Avoid Gas From Beans

1. Learn How to Cook Beans:  It is easy to cook beans but it requires planning ahead of time.

I am quite fastidious about how to cook beans and lentils as I do not like experiencing the common thing we all associate beans with…GAS! I now feel good after eating beans and lentils because there isn’t all that gas or smelly farts.

It is easy to cook beans, but it requires planning ahead of time. Learn how to cook beans, see my recipe. How To Cook Beans and Lentils To Prevent Gas

2.   Eat lots of vegetables, particularly green ones with your beans (75% of the meal should be vegetables). This means not to eat too many beans too.

3.   As Beans are slow to digest:

•    Eat fruit or sugar foods 2 – 3 hours away from a meal with beans.
•    Only eat one protein in the same meal, as each protein requires a specific type and strength of digestive juices.
•    Potatoes conflict with the digestion of the beans–so avoid eating them in the same meal.
•    Eat a whole grain with beans to complement them.

4.    In Japan and far East Asia, they add a piece of seaweed (Kombu or Wakame) after the beans, as it makes the beans more digestible, more nutritious, and tastes great!

5.    Use digestive spices – in India, they cook ginger, turmeric, cumin, coriander, and sometimes fennel and asafetida with beans to make them more digestible.

6.    Chew and savour your beans! Beans and grains are foods where digestion starts in the mouth. Savour the beans in your mouth before swallowing to begin digestion.

7. Start with mung beans, adzuki, and dhal as they are easy to digest because they are low in complex sugars that are easily broken down by the human digestive enzymes. Even invalids can digest these.

Should Soda Be Added to Beans?

So often I hear that adding soda to the beans will help reduce gas. I did some research and found what the Cleveland Clinic said about this:

“Researchers in India looked at five different types of beans, soaked in:

• • • Plain water for six hours.
    • Plain water for 12 hours.
    • Water with baking soda (1/16 teaspoon per quart) for six hours.
    • Water with baking soda for 12 hours.

Afterward, they measured the levels of gas-producing substances left in the beans.

They found the fewest in beans soaked for 12 hours. Whether they were soaked in plain water or water with baking soda didn’t matter.”

“But remember not to cook the beans in the baking soda water,” notes Dr. Todorov. “That may cause the beans to lose some of their vitamins.”

If you’re new to beans, start with a small amount and increase gradually by eating them once a week, then twice a week, and so on.  Do keep up eating beans regularly so your digestion learns how to digest them.

Ways to include beans, peas, & lentils to your diet:

• Add beans to your favourite vegetable soup or stew.
• Add beans to your salads.
• Instead of the meat in chili and stews, add beans.
• Add beans to your favourite rice dishes.
• Consider vegetarian days.
• Plan meals for a week, adding beans to the daily menus.
• Try a new legume each week.

Try Making These Tasty Bean Recipes

Chili con Vege recipe – This is my delicious Vegan Chili recipe, which is always enjoyed whenever I serve it. It is very healthy, and it is vegan and gluten-free too.

Adzuki Vegetable Bean Stew – This is a simple recipe with one of the easiest to digest beans: adzuki beans. I love Adzuki beans, and this tasty stew is filling and delicious.

White Bean and Asparagus Stew – I created this White Bean and Asparagus Stew recipe out for the first time on two dinner guests.  That was rather brave!  They were good friends, and you never know how some people react to beans. 

Delicious Black Bean Stew – This stew is easy to make and filled with nutritious ingredients

Remember…you have to know how to cook them properly.  Read Cooking Beans and Lentils

What is YOUR favorite bean recipe?