Dealing with beans

[Pegleg84]

Hi guys,

Wondering how many of you have trouble with beans? I know they are one of the hardest foods to digest in general (hense the musical fruit), but for we with gastrointestinal problems, I wonder if our guts don't have to work a lot harder?

In any case, since beans are good for you, I want to add more to my diet, but consistently they tend to cause more grief than they're worth! If I make beans at home, I stick to black beans (my favs), soak them overnight, cook real well, try not to eat too many at once, but my gut is always complaining a couple hours later (pain! gas!), and it can leave me feeling drained by the time they've digested. I'm pretty sure I am not getting ccd (I do buy in bulk, but wash extremely well), so let's not treat this as a gluten problem.

So, if you eat beans, do you have problems (beyond the expected gassyness)? Any cooking tips? (I heard soaking for 2 days! can help) Should Celiacs just not bother?

FYI: I'm intolerant to soy and dairy as well, have problems digesting eggs, whole grains, etc (anything "hard" to digest). I take digestive enzymes which helps slightly, but I often wonder if this is all just par for the course, or if I'm having flare-ups of gastritis/leaky gut/whatever you want to call it.

this comes up as I made a batch of black bean masala the other night, which turned out delicious, but isn't doing so well on the way through. Ugh. I just want to be able to eat more non-meat protein.

Any advice/commiserating/bean jokes welcome.

Peggy

[kareng]

I don't have an issue with any type of beans

 

 

Open Original Shared Link

[gilligan]

1 hour ago, Pegleg84 said:

Hi guys,

Wondering how many of you have trouble with beans? I know they are one of the hardest foods to digest in general (hense the musical fruit), but for we with gastrointestinal problems, I wonder if our guts don't have to work a lot harder?

In any case, since beans are good for you, I want to add more to my diet, but consistently they tend to cause more grief than they're worth! If I make beans at home, I stick to black beans (my favs), soak them overnight, cook real well, try not to eat too many at once, but my gut is always complaining a couple hours later (pain! gas!), and it can leave me feeling drained by the time they've digested. I'm pretty sure I am not getting ccd (I do buy in bulk, but wash extremely well), so let's not treat this as a gluten problem.

So, if you eat beans, do you have problems (beyond the expected gassyness)? Any cooking tips? (I heard soaking for 2 days! can help) Should Celiacs just not bother?

FYI: I'm intolerant to soy and dairy as well, have problems digesting eggs, whole grains, etc (anything "hard" to digest). I take digestive enzymes which helps slightly, but I often wonder if this is all just par for the course, or if I'm having flare-ups of gastritis/leaky gut/whatever you want to call it.

this comes up as I made a batch of black bean masala the other night, which turned out delicious, but isn't doing so well on the way through. Ugh. I just want to be able to eat more non-meat protein.

Any advice/commiserating/bean jokes welcome.

Peggy

Karen, do you purchase dried beans?

 

[kareng]

I am much too lazy to soak and cook dried beans!  lol  I use canned.  Which must have been dry beans at one time? 

 

I eat beans at a couple of restaurants that are probably cooked from dry and I am fine with them.

[Pegleg84]

Lucky.

This is why I want to know if it's a common thing, or could be a problem.

I like dried because it's cheaper, and I hate cans, but they are a pain to cook. I usually try to make a big batch and freeze most of it.

But still, my gut. it is not pleased.

[Sara789]

I'm still in the healing stage, but beans don't seem to bother me. I wish I could say the same for cow dairy, nuts, and acidic foods. 

I don't know why beans don't bother me, but so far so good.

The only beans I eat are what I make from dried beans. I like that they're cheaper and easy to store. I wash them well under running water, soak them in fresh water over nigh, rinse them 3 times with fresh water (like with rice), then cook them in a pressure cooker. If you're big on beans, I highly recommend a good pressure cooker since it takes a fraction of the time. Plus, I live in a high altitude area and it takes so much longer to cook them in a pot at high altitude than it did when I was at sea level.

Here's the pressure cooker I have and love: Open Original Shared Link. You can sometimes find them at garage sales, on Craigslist, or in thrift stores if you're going frugal. If you buy a used one I suggest you scrub it within an inch of it's life and get a new seal to make sure you don't get any residual gluten from prior use.

[GFinDC]

Beans no likea me!  The only ones that don't bother me a lot are the Bushes baked beans in can.  I guess it has something to do with how long they are cooked, but they seem easier to digest.

[apprehensiveengineer]

I am also allergic to soy and have problems with beans. At first I thought this might be because I had problems with other legumes - I originally tested positive for pea protein via skin prick (soy was not on the panel), but found that soy made my mouth/throat itchy after doing an elimination diet protocol.

However, more recently I've been using a canned brand that is labelled organic/gluten-free (same brand also has non-organic beans that are not labelled gluten-free, so presumably there is a difference that they know about). These beans do not seem to cause me any issues. I've tried other canned brands to poor results, but have had ok results from some other USDA organic labelled beans (without any gluten-free claims). I have not tried dried beans because I don't have time for that. I always rinse my beans before eating/cooking. As an aside, pre-packaged foods like hummus sometimes causes me problems depending on the brand, but I never have problems with products that are certified gluten-free, which gives me the impression that this is an issue with ingredient sourcing as opposed to just my system not appreciating beans.

My best guess is that the organic beans are sourced more selectively (ie. from the US/Canada/Europe), meaning that they might have had less chance of being cross-contaminated during packaging/processing. Most cheap canned beans don't say where they are from, so they are likely from China/India, where there is even less concern for CC with soy and/or gluten... especially soy. I am sure that the majority of celiacs need not concern themselves with this, but I am quite sensitive and the soy thing makes me leery of food products coming from countries where this is a staple food. Not sure if this comment helps, but you are not alone!