Beans flatulence

5 Tips to Deflate Flatulence

Beans, though good for you, have the unfortunate side effect of causing gas. To lessen beans' effects, try one of these easy tips:

• Lose the water. By discarding beans' soaking water prior to cooking, you're getting rid of up to 80% of the oligosaccharides that cause flatulence.
• Let your body adjust. If you don't eat beans often, your body never fully adapts to the extra work required to digest their complex sugars. Begin by eating beans 2 to 3 times each week, then gradually increase the quantity.
• Add a little something extra. Certain ingredients like a few bay leaves, a generous pinch of cumin, 6 fresh leaves (or 2 teaspoons dried) epazote or a 2-inch strip or two of kombu have gas-reducing properties when added to beans while they cook.
• Go simple. Note that beans cooked with added sweeteners — brown sugar, honey or maple syrup, for instance — may stress your digestion even more, so opt for plain beans when you can.
• Get a little help. Look for digestive enzymes in our Whole Body department. Sprinkling them on cooked beans or taking them in tablet form with your first bite of beans helps to break down the oligosaccharides before they reach the large intestine.

Adapted from Margaret Wittenberg's New Good Food: Essential Ingredients for Cooking and Eating Well. Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 1995, 2007.

Enzymes

Cooked, processed foods and especially meat, fish, chicken and eggs, are missing a vital component for quick digestion: ENZYMES.

Enzymes are proteins that accelerate the digestive process. These catalysts are critical if you want to minimize bloat and maximize energy.

That’s because every time you eat, your body uses enzymes to extract vitamins, minerals and amino acids from your food.

Once food is broken down inside your digestive tract, your body can then use those nutrients for energy, growth, cell repair, immune support and overall well-being.

While our bodies produce their own enzymes for digestion, there are also enzymes in food that help jump start that process.

The problem is our modern diet is missing these important nutrients.

Enzymes only exist in raw and unprocessed foods. Once cooked, the live enzymes are completely destroyed.

So unless you’re eating only sushi and uncooked vegetables, you’re probably not getting that extra boost of food enzymes your body needs.

And when you are low on enzymes, you can have big problems like severe bloating, gas, stomach cramps, heartburn, nausea and low energy.
Why? Because your body must work harder than ever to digest food.