Beans. Beans galore!

by Margarita Persico

There is more to beans than just looks. But in the eyes of a child, looks count. That’s why the first time I ate beans I was 14 years old. My dad, who loved to cook, was making a Mexican Chili. I had never tasted Mexican food. I lived in New York City, and I was the pickiest child according to my parents. I always found something wrong with food—never with sweets. I stopped liking burgers when I found out animals were killed and I didn’t eat beans because they looked like insects. When my dad was introducing us to Mexican bean chili, I immediately complaint, “I don’t like that. I’m not eating it!” Dad snap back and said, “Taste it first, and if you don’t like it, you don’t have to eat it!” I was a teen by then; I ate it and I loved it.

Every since I started eating beans, Mexican style was my favorite. When I became a vegetarian, which I remained very strict for over a decade, I started introducing all sorts of beans: mung beans, adzuki, kidney, lima, navy, black turtle, chickpeas, soy beans, lentils, pigeon beans, faba (broad beans) and others. I thought I had seen every type of beans until I moved to Costa Rica. As usual, I shopped at a few farmers’ markets weekly.

Though beans are said to be good for you, a word of advise on beans: they should never be eaten raw since they contain a toxic agent, according to the FDA. The highest concentration of this toxin, phytohaemagglutinin, is found in red kidney beans. Cooking reduces the toxins exponentially according to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

“The syndrome is usually caused by the ingestion of raw, soaked kidney beans, either alone or in salads or casseroles. As few as four or five raw beans can trigger symptoms,” the FDA website adds that slow cookers, crock-pots or casseroles do not reach high temperature to destroy the toxins.

And of course there is another concern, as the children’s rhyme goes, “Beans, Beans, The Musical Fruit” “The more you eat them, the more you f…” alluding to the side effects many suffer when eating beans: flatulence.

Some bean lovers use Beano to prevent this since “Beano contains a natural enzyme that works with your body’s digestion,” according to Beano’s site. “It breaks down complex carbohydrates into simple sugars, preventing gas before it starts.”

But why should we eat beans, one might ask after reading all this? For one thing, as the children’s rhyme continues:

“Beans, Beans, They’re Good for Your Heart.” That is because they are rich in fiber, protein, complex carbohydrate, iron, and folate.

For bean recipes, click below:

Veggie Burgers

Black beans-Olive Spread

Split Pea Soup

Simple Lentil Soup

Gangules, Out of Africa and into America