I’m just starting what I hope will be a more healthy diet (not difficult, considering the trash I eat now) and one of the ideas my mom suggested was beans. So I’m making some baked beans, and the cookbook is quite categorical that I should keep the same liquid all the way through soaking, cooking, and baking the beans.
However, I’ve also read where changing the water repeatedly causes flatulence-causing enzymes to leach out of the beans, reducing the frequency of bean-induced farts. Has anyone else heard this?
Further, If I decide to embark on a programme of experimentation, what dreadful consequences can ensue from changing the water that makes my cookbook inveigh against it so harshly?
I don’t have a source handy to back it up, but I’ve heard the same thing. Pertaining to why they tell you not to change the water, I’d assume it’s because of everything else that leaches out of the beans, e.g., vitamins, minerals, et cetera. If you discard the water, you lose all of those nutrients that did leach out. FYI, the water from boiling potatoes is very nutrious.
Julia Child had a brief discussion about this in one of her cookbooks. I believe the conclusion was that discarding the soaking water helps, at the cost of some minimal loss of nutrients. Once you start cooking, though, discarding the cooking liquid could significantly affect the flavor of the final product.
I’ve found that the best solution is just to eat beans, lentils, etc. regularly. Your system should get used to them pretty quickly.
Yes, it is very nutritious. If you make bread, save the water from boiling potatoes. You get the vitamins lost from the potatoes in your bread.
However, you don’t want to do what my mom used to do and save your potato water in the same type of half gallon mason jars you kept your lemonade in. I took a big swig of potato water more than once.
As to beans and their flatulence-producing properties…
If you have not been in the habit of eating beans regularly, start by adding them slowly to your meals. Your body should start producing the enzymes necessary to digest them, but it can be a slow process, so give it time and let your body get used to this new diet.
If you find that your body does not, even over time, get used to them, Beano works very well.
If you’re going to be adding beans to your diet extensively, I highly recommend getting a pressure cooker. Rather than the overnight soak, you can boil them for a couple minutes, let them soak for an hour, then pressure cook for around 10-20 minutes depending on the type of bean. I’ve found it to be an enormous convenience.
But having read the thread I now wonder, does the use of the pressure cooker affect the nutritional content of the beans significantly?
We assure you that changing the bean water is of little use except if you desire to loose some of the flavor. A steady diet of beans is what your gut needs.
I really love Bean Soup- w/ ham and onions and spices. It’s easy to make and tastes great. But they are pretty noxious down the road if you catch my drift. I always add a teaspoon of baking soda to the simmering to help remove the snappers.
Well, my bean-loving beloved health food nut of a Grandma J., back in the 1970s, was much troubled with flatulence and actually experimented with this, to see if it was true. Verdict? Yes, it’s true, it actually works.
First you soak the beans in cold water overnight. Discard this water the next morning.
Put the beans in enough water to cover and bring to a boil. Shut the heat off, drain the beans, add new water, bring to a boil.
Shut the heat off, drain the water, add new water, bring to a boil.
Do this once more, making three changes of water, and you’re all set. Now just cook the beans in boiling water for as long as it takes to get them cooked, depending on the bean. Or put them into the bean pot or whatever.
Grandma swore by this method.
The scientific reasoning behind it is that the flatulence is caused by certain carbohydrates, which the repeated boiling eventually leaches out of the beans. And any possible nutritional losses are more than made up for by the inclusion in your diet of carrot juice, potato skins, whole wheat bread, and sea salt, all of which Grandma also faithfully consumed, along with her defused beans.
Are aunts allowed? My vegetarian kin insist that, in addition to the acclimation effects, a bit of seaweed in the recipe will do wonders in reducing farts.