Can you avoid gas by soaking beans overnight before cooking?

It helps: after you soak the beans overnight- get rid of the water in which you soaked the beans before cooking. If that doesn't help, there is a product on the market called beano, when taken with bean products may help to decrease the gas production by digesting part of the beans.

Not really: Beans and similar legumes contain fucose, a simple sugar that humans do not have an enzyme system to digest.Soaking or slow cooking has been shown to decrease the gassy effect,but the fucose remains and gut bacteria do digest it & produce gas in the process.Beano is an OTC product that contains the enzyme, but depending on the amount consumed may not prevent some gasiness.