<ahem>gas</ahem>
Posted by Wenz on Oct 05, 2006 · Member since Sep 2006 · 4 posts
Okay, this is a very sensitive issue but every time I eat certain common legumes, I'm plagued with painful (and very smelly) gas for hours. Given that they are such a staple for vegetarians, can anyone suggest ways to minimize this after effect, either through cooking methods or other off-setting foods that reduce gas? Right now, I'm so hesitant to eat legumes (lentils, red beans, black beans) in any quantity. I seem to do much better with white beans, black-eyed peas and peas, in general.
Try ginger! Or peppermint tea. Both of those have helped me in the past. Or perhaps try Beano, and there'll "Be No" gas?
Sneaking beans into your diet a little at a time helps... if you dive right in, your system rebels! Try not combining them with other veggies that stir up your tum, while you're changing your diet, too. When you're cooking your beans, try draining off the soaking water or even bringing them to a boil and then pouring off that liquid and putting in fresh water for the cooking itself. Changing the water really helps my partner's sensitive system not to overreact to beans. If they're tinned, throw away the liquid they come in and rinse them. It's overly salty anyway, and they'll taste much nicer refreshed with a good rinse-- and give you less gas.
MmeMuffin is quite right. Ginger or peppermint seems to help as a remedy, and there are other herbs (epazote, for example) that are supposed to help do away with some of the gassy effects when cooked with the beans.
If you have a calcium supplement, take it when you've had a beany meal, and it might cut down on the chaos, too. That's how "Tums" and other antacids work-- and they really do work! But the gassiness is an enzymatic response, and remedies like Beano actually contribute to building up the stuff in your system so that your tolerance will be greater in the future.
Good luck!
Hi there!
My mom does this whenever she makes a huge pot of pinto beans: When soaking the beans overnight, put in some baking soda (about a couple tablespoons). The next day rinse your beans, do a quick boil, drain them, and then cook the beans in clean water. Then add an onion, 1 tablespoon chili powder, alot of salsa, and whatever else you fancy. It always turns out fantastic!
Hope this works for ya. Good luck!
Ohhh yeah! My mom used to do that, too, til she got put on a restricted sodium diet and started very strictly rationing things like baking soda as additives, and it really worked!
If you discard the water you soaked the legumes in, rinse them and use fresh water to cook them, it helps a great deal too...all the "stuff" that leaches into the water, and makes bubbles on the surface, is maybe what causes the problem.
I lived in Honduras for 2 years and if I didn't eat beans I'd go hungry. I started having major problems with gas. It was painful. Anyway, when I told Hondurans about it, they seemed to think that the culprit was in the skin of the bean. There was some method of pre-cooking or soaking and then shaking the beans to remove some of the skin. I never tried it, but I think this lends credibility to pouring out the water they soak in, boiling a little in new water, and then replacing the water again for cooking.
good luck!
The solution I found is to just eat a small quantity of them daily, say 1/3 cup. I find pintos to be the very worst offender, black eyed peas, lentils to be the least offensive. I can eat chickpeas (garbanzo beans) with no problems, especially in hummus. Black beans aren't too bad and neither are navy beans. Your body actually will get used to them and you'll be less odorous over time.
I know that in the Little House on the Prairie cookbook, they have you soak navy beans, rinse and cook in fresh water. When you get to where you can blow on a hot bean and the skin rolls back a bit, you put in a 1 to 2 tsps (depending on quantity of beans) into the pot as they cook. That will zap some of the gas, but sadly also destroys some of the B vitamins.
On another note, there was some so-called vintage bean varieties out there that are higher in protein, lower in starch and produce less gas. They are interesting looking and I have not had time to go and find a site that sells them. Sigh...
The chemical reaction in the colon that produces gas is the same principle as that of beer making. That is, B vitamins and fermentation, especially in the presence of grains like wheat. Unfortunately, beer gets fizzy and we become socially unacceptable!
And before I forget, if you want to add beans to your diet, try cooking good old soybeans which are not very gas producing, being high in protein and lower in starch.
I find that just blaming the flatuence on a nearby elderly person also helps. Just joking! I have this problem too. I think I will try the boiling and rinsing idea.
I used to have this problem as well...the pain was so agonizing that sometimes I had to just lay down and moan for hours. Using dry beans and soaking them in a particular way has eliminated the difficulty for me. Here's what I do:
1. rinse the dry beans 3 times.
2. boil the beans for 5 minutes or so.
3. soak the beans overnight.
4. drain soaking liquid and rinse well.
5. cook the beans on a very low simmer for 3 hours. When I was in Central America, I noticed that some women simmer their beans even longer than 3 hours...sometimetimes nearly all day. For me, a very low temp for a long time seems to work better for gas reduction than a quick 2-hour boil.
This works better for me than any other method. It's a little involved, but I don't need to do it often -- I cook a couple pounds of beans at a time, then freeze a bunch of them for later use. It's much cheaper than canned beans and much easier on the tummy!