How To Degas Beans
Today I made this really delicious chili with loads of fiber and color and beans,
And a lot of people cannot tolerate beans.
And I want to talk about how to help you tolerate beans and enjoy this delicious chili.
[Video Transcript Below Video - it is the same information]
Hi, my name is Jesse Gutsue. I'm a registered dietitian and functional nutritionist with Oswald Digestive Clinic.
If you're interested in our guide for 5 tips for faster, gut-healthy meals, you can download it for free HERE!
So I'd like to talk about a few different ways to Degas beans.
Why are beans hard to tolerate for some people?
One of the reasons that we have a hard time tolerating beans is because of the carbohydrate in them called oligosaccharides.
And this is a chain of simple sugars that's three to 10 simple sugars long, and actually, we don't typically digest many of these carbohydrates. Instead, they make our way to the colon where our gut bacteria will ferment them.
So depending on your diversity of your gut microbiome, you can be more gas and bloated than some other people. And so let's degas these beans.
How To Degas Beans
The first way to do that is to soak them overnight for eight to 12 hours.
The second way in similar form is soaking the beans, but also rinsing and draining those beans periodically, say every two to four hours you drain the beans, rinse them, and then cover them with new water to soak for a total of eight to 12 hours.
Another tip to Degas beans is to add baking soda.
Sodium bicarbonate helps to get into the bean and hydrate it a little bit further to soften the outer shell and help make digestion even easier.
You simply do this by adding one teaspoon of baking soda to one gallon of water. So when you go to soak your beans, you add the teaspoon of baking soda to the water and then add the beans and mix thoroughly.
You do this and change the water every three to four hours to further reduce those oligosaccharides or those carbohydrate chains that end up being fermented in our colon and cause the gas bloating.
In addition to those, you can add spices like cumin and ginger, which are traditional spices that help aid in digestion.
One of the ways that spices and herbs are so effective is that we can smell them, and this aroma really helps to amp up our digestive juices to initiate the saliva and the different enzymes that come into our mouth, as well as in our stomach to further increase digestion.
A slow cooking form also helps to degas beans with anybody that has digestive issues or gas or bloat or tummy troubles. We would always recommend that you would slow cook your food rather than higher heat in shorter cooking times. This helps to really soften different foods like meats and vegetables and for easier digestion.
And last but not least, if you're short on time, you can use canned beans.
Just make sure to really rinse them well. And then of course, try a low, long, slow cook process. So I hope you try one or all of these methods to Degas beans because it's really important to be able to enjoy a food like this color rich, fiber rich protein heavy chili.
Because all of these fibers and prebiotics help to, when they're fermented in our colon, create these short chain fatty acids that are anti-inflammatory, strengthen the lining of our digestive track, and then further reduce gassiness in the future.
If you'd like a full 30 minute cooking demo where I can walk you through this recipe, you can simply email us at cookingdemos@oswalddigestiveclinic.com.
Or you can just start by downloading our FREE GUIDE: 5 Tips For Faster, Gut-Healthy Meals!
