More data on the bean question

[cjsmith]

I have thought of some exceptions to the beans-and-legumes problem:
- I can eat peanuts okay as long as I don't eat many.
- I can eat green beans fine (although I admit those aren't heavy on the BEAN component; they're mostly the pod).

Thanks go to abqdan for finding this Mayo Clinic link with information on the various indigestible or hard-to-digest sugars. That clearly suggests some experiments. I already suspect I have trouble with lactose in sufficient quantities; a few days of carefully-chosen meal plans will tell me whether I'm also sensitive to fructose or to sorbitol. My bean soup was full of onions and was eaten with homemade wheat bread, making that experiment by itself a total mess. Testing one potential cause at a time is simplest.

The fact that Beano is alpha-galactosidase is intriguing. I never knew raffinose was digested via a pathway so similar to that of lactose. Lactase meds are beta-galactosidase, right? Maybe I need BOTH. Maybe Beano alone won't help someone who's lactase-deficient. (I wish I knew more of this stuff.) Nevermind, I'm barking up the wrong tree with this one. I may need both, but I don't need both for beans. Both galactosidases cleave the appropriate polysaccharide into monosaccharides; alpha- works on raffinose (beans), beta- on lactose. Once that's done, three more enzymes are required for digestion of galactose (a monosaccharide present in both raffinose and lactose), but if I had problems with those enzymes, I'd be very sick or even dead right now.

I would also be interested in suggestions from folks who laud a bean-and-grain diet as somehow more "natural" or "real" (which would rule out Beano, lactase, and probably imported herb/spice additives as well). If indeed humans should be able to subsist on this stuff, then either I am physiologically wonky (alien? :) ) or I don't know how to boil beans. If I simply don't know how to boil beans, I would like to learn. It would be a lot simpler to be able to make bean soup and not have to run out to the store for medicine in order to eat it.

Comments

[hanov3r.livejournal.com]

I would argue that 'subsist' != 'eat toot-free'. You're capable of eating beans, right? You are, as far as you know, capable of processing most of the nutritional elements that exist in said beans? That tells me you're probably capable of subsisting on them, albeit with a certain amount of discomfort.

I think I worked a little too long for the law firm.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I would argue that the level of pain I have if I eat mostly beans would be counter to survival in a developing hunter/gatherer group. :)

[hanov3r.livejournal.com]

Not to mention how easy it would be for a hunting animal to track you... :-)

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

HAHAHAHA! For the win!

[recordersmith.livejournal.com]

Is digesting beans painful for you too? or just smelly?

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Painful in larger quantities, due to the gas.