10 Ingenious Unexpected Uses for Baking Soda

If you love beans but hate the pressure and fullness that you get after eating them, baking soda may be your easy solution.

Try it: When soaking dry beans, mix in about 1/16 teaspoon baking soda per quart of water and soak as usual. You can do the same with canned beans by adding baking soda to the liquid in the can and letting them sit for a few hours. Whichever beans you start with, be sure to dump the liquid before you cook them and give them a quick rinse.

Why it works: Beans contain raffinose, a sugar that our bodies cannot break down, producing gas, says Kathleen London, M.D., family medicine physician and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College. Baking soda helps reduce the levels of raffinose in beans, stopping the bloat before it starts.