Many people love beans and they are a staple in the diet of hundreds of thousands of people all across the globe. The
problem with beans is that they can have unwanted social side effects, like farting. Scientists in Venezuela have been
working furiously, trying to eliminate or reduce this problem and have finally come up with a solution.
Farting is the end result of a process that begins when the soluble fiber in beans, not already broken down in the small intestine, is broken down by the large intestine. They found that adding two strains of bacteria, Lactobacillus casei and Lactobacillus plantarum, to the beans, reduced soluble fiber by 60% and lowered the level of another gas-causing compound known as raffinose by 88%. This means that there were fewer farts. It also increased the insoluble fiber in the beans by almost 10%, adding more nutritional value of the beans, in addition to uncovering the root of a social problem.














