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Comment by bumby | Hacker News Reader

I would love to be able to eat more beans and lentils because they are cheap, store well, relatively nutritious, and a fairly good alternative to meat. However, they don't sit well with my GI tract. Maybe I have a bad gut biome but the bloat keeps me from using them much

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Have you looked into low-FODMAP diets? The "full Monty" is way too restrictive, but, after a while on it, my wife tried a reduced-FODMAP diet that made a huge difference for her.

https://www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/wellness-and-preventi...

I had not heard of this, thank you for sharing!

Also enzymes can help Aka “prebiotics”

You might be preparing them incorrectly. Try rinsing very thoroughly and flushing the water, and/or boiling them for longer.

Are you soaking them for 24 hours first? See instructions here, for example.

https://dontwastethecrumbs.com/how-to-soak-and-cook-beans-fr...

I typically just put them into a pressure cooker but will definitely give this a try

It could be you're not used to the fiber content. I've found swapping breakfast out for some raw oats in milk or plain yogurt helped my general digestion (but of course, everyone is different).

Seconding the suggestion that you might just be unused to the amount of fiber. I had to go on a high fiber diet for medical reasons a while back. I definitely had some side effects for a while, but I had no choice but to stick with it. Eventually they went away, but the benefits stayed.

I had similar problems when I moved out to university and had to cook for myself on a tight budget. After a few months your gut gets used to an all-lentil diet.

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