![\"img_0043\"](\"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/journal\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/11\/IMG_0043-1024x424.jpg\")
<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
Do you know why after soaking beans overnight you are instructed to drain, rinse well, and then use fresh water to cook the beans? \u00c2\u00a0I was told we do it because it reduces flatulence, old wives wisdom and all that. \u00c2\u00a0And actually it does, but the real reason to do it is to prevent illness.<\/p>\n
Legumes and grains contain a type of protein called lectin. \u00c2\u00a0Lectins can be toxic. \u00c2\u00a0Lectins are also responsible for the gas inducing responses we can have to the magical fruit that is beans. \u00c2\u00a0Soaking the beans draws out some of these toxins, so we need to discard the soaking water, rinse well, and start with fresh for cooking to reduce our exposure to the lectins. \u00c2\u00a0The cooking process destroys most of what is left in the legume.<\/p>\n
Now, there are different kinds of them, and they vary in how ill they can make you. \u00c2\u00a0In fact almost all foods have some lectins, and some lectins are beneficial. \u00c2\u00a0Different people also respond to the same lectins in different ways. \u00c2\u00a0Beacuse\u00c2\u00a0we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t digest lectins, we often produce antibodies to them. Almost everyone has antibodies to some dietary lectins in their body. This means our responses vary. However, some legumes, such as red kidney beans, are so full of toxic to humans lectins that they should not be eaten unless properly, thoroughly cooked. \u00c2\u00a0(Red kidney beans are not suitable for sprouting!).<\/p>\n
The temptation of post-SHTF bean cooking is to reduce water usage. \u00c2\u00a0I’ve even seen advice to just cook \u00c2\u00a0it in that water. \u00c2\u00a0Don’t do it! \u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>Modern packaged beans don’t need nearly the sorting and cleaning;\u00c2\u00a0you are unlikely to find rocks and dirt, but it’s still not good to ingest! \u00c2\u00a0Find another way to use that water. \u00c2\u00a0Use it for flushing, or if it’s the right season, water your garden with it. \u00c2\u00a0I actually wonder if this might repel certain animals from nibbling at your plants – it’s thought that plants developed lectins to deter animals from eating their seeds and animals can smell the lectins. \u00c2\u00a0That’s just speculation on my part though.<\/p>\n Keep in mind that it’s not just dried beans that can make you ill. \u00c2\u00a0Some types of grains and legumes can be eaten raw (like a sugar snap pea, pod and all) but others (like a runner bean, can eat pod, but pod and contents needs to be fully cooked, or a mature fava, discard pod, peel inner bean and fully cook) need to be cooked to be safely edible. \u00c2\u00a0If you don’t know for sure that your produce is safe to eat raw, err on the side of caution and cook it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Do you know why after soaking beans overnight you are instructed to drain, rinse well, and then use fresh water to cook the beans? \u00c2\u00a0I was told we do it because it reduces flatulence, old wives wisdom and all that. \u00c2\u00a0And actually it does, but the real reason to do it is to prevent illness. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[29,4,26],"tags":[41,50,12],"class_list":["post-335","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-food-storage","category-general","category-prepper-talk","tag-beans","tag-cooking","tag-food"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=335"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":338,"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/335\/revisions\/338"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=335"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=335"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pcgirl.net\/journal\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=335"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}