WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- Two strains of
bacteria are the key to making beans flatulence-free, Venezuelan
researchers reported on Tuesday. They identified two
bacteria, Lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus plantarum, which can be
added to beans so they cause minimal distress to those who eat them,
and to those around the bean-lovers, Marisela Granito of Simon Bolivar
University in Caracas, Venezuela and colleagues reported. Flatulence
is gas released by bacteria that live in the large intestine when they
break down food. Fermenting makes food more digestible earlier on. Writing
in the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture, Granito and
colleagues found that adding these two gut bacteria to beans before
cooking them made them even less likely to cause flatulence. They tested black beans, known scientifically as Phaseolus vulgaris. "Legumes,
and particularly Phaseolus vulgaris, are an important source of
nutrients, especially in developing countries," Granito's team wrote in
the report. "In spite of being part of the staple diets of these populations, their consumption is limited by the flatulence they produce." Smart
cooks know they can ferment beans, and make them less gas-inducing, by
cooking them in the liquor from a previous batch. But Granito's team
wanted to find out just which bacteria were responsible for this. When
the researchers fermented black beans with the two bacteria, they found
it decreased the soluble fiber content by more than 60 percent and
lowered levels of raffinose, a compound known to cause gas, by 88
percent. They fed the beans to rats and then analyzed the rats'
droppings to ensure that the beans were digested and kept their
nutritional value. When pre-soaked in the L. casei, the beans stayed nutritious and produced few gas-causing compounds, they reported. "Therefore,
the lactic acid bacteria involved in the bean fermentation, which
include L. casei as a probiotic, could be used as functional starter
cultures in the food industry," the researchers wrote. "Likewise,
the cooking applied after induced fermentation produced an additional
diminution of the compounds related to flatulence." | 
