Beans are seeds from the Fabaceae family, commonly known as the legume, pea, or bean family. They are an affordable source of protein, fiber, iron, and vitamins that offer many health benefits.
Because of their high concentration of health-promoting nutrients, consuming more beans in the American diet could improve overall health and also decrease the risk of developing certain diseases, including heart disease, obesity and many types of cancers.
Protein is a vital nutrient that plays a key role in maintaining and repairing the body. Beans are high in amino acids, the building blocks of protein. There are 20 amino acids, and nine of these are essential. There are also two types of protein sources: complete and incomplete.
These beans are available dry, canned, or frozen. They differ nutritionally from green beans or wax beans where a person eats the entire pod. Beans contain amino acids, which are the protein building blocks that the body uses to heal and to make new tissues, such as bone, muscle, hair, skin, and blood. Protein is an essential nutrient.
Why do beans give gas?
Beans are high in soluble fiber, which is fermented by your gut bacteria, leading to increased gas production in the colon. Beans also contain a compound called raffinose. It’s a type of non-digestible carbohydrate also found in foods like cabbage, broccoli, and Brussels sprouts ( 6 ).
While I was writing we ran into the question “Why do beans smell bad?”.
The problem with beans is that digesting their sugars often creates a fragrant, musical byproduct: gas, or flatulence. Is there any way to avoid the tooting horns … and unpleasant odor?
Oligosaccharides in beans make it all the way to the large intestine undigested. Bacteria in the large intestine finally feed on these sugars. Doing so causes fermentation (a chemical breakdown) and the production of gas. We release that gas as flatulence .
Why can’t I Digest beans?
The reason why people have problems digesting beans is that we lack the alpha-galactosidase enzyme in our digestive tract. This enzyme breaks down indigestible oligosaccharides into smaller components so they can be digested. For many years, people have taken a product called Beano, which contains alpha-galactosidase to help prevent gas from beans.
How long does it take for beans to help with gas?
But after three to four weeks, flatulence levels for all the beans returned to normal as people adjusted to the increased fiber. Dr. Todorov points out, however, that 6 to 12 percent of the people saw no decrease in gas with any bean. “People vary in their response to different legumes,” she says.