With Crohn's, is it wise to soak beans?

The short answer is yes, it is wise to soak dried legumes before eating or cooking with them. These harder-to-digest foods are a food source that is not globally suitable in Crohn's. In the Specific Carbohydrate Diet, for example, legumes are considered to be an advanced food eaten only over time in the absence of symptoms. Because Crohn's predisposes individuals to micronutrient malabsorption and disease processes deplete micronutrients, guarding the nutritional potential of foods is imperative. The chelating effects of phytate-rich legumes is undesirable; therefore, soaking legumes to lower phytic acid is a positive step toward improving the nutritional potential of this potentially versatile food.

"Living With Phytic Acid" from The Weston A. Price Foundation
"It is not necessary to completely eliminate phytic acid from the diet, only to keep it to acceptable levels. An excess of 800 mg phytic acid per day is probably not a good idea. The average phytate intake in the U.S. and the U.K. ranges between 631 and 746 mg per day; the average in Finland is 370 mg; in Italy it is 219 mg; and in Sweden a mere 180 mg per day.

In the context of a diet rich in calcium, vitamin D, vitamin A, vitamin C, good fats and lacto-fermented foods, most people will do fine on an estimated 400-800 mg per day. For those suffering from tooth decay, bone loss or mineral deficiencies, total estimated phytate content of 150-400 mg would be advised. For children under age six, pregnant women or those with serious illnesses, it is best to consume a diet as low in phytic acid as possible.

In practical terms, this means properly preparing phytate-rich foods to reduce at least a portion of the phytate content, and restricting their consumption to two or three servings per day."

At a minimum, beans should be soaked for twelve hours, drained and rinsed several times before cooking, for a total of thirty-six hours. Cooking with a handful of green weed leaves, such as dandelion or chickweed, can improve mineral assimilation."