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

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I don't think I know of anyone who would advocate dropping everything that ISN'T a bean or a grain. I just know a lot of people who preach that lots of beans and grains is "the right way" to eat. And I figure, hey, preachers should know their subject, right? :) Maybe they can help.

I try to avoid beans from restaurants, although I'll sometimes go ahead, and yeah, I react. :) But it could be that there's a very very careful and effective way to cook them (that I would need) and a not so careful way (that restaurants would use and most people would be okay with).

I agree with you that lack of lactase is the more normal state, for most of humanity, at least in adulthood. It may be that some other beta-galactosidase (lactase is a subset of beta-galactosidases) is what's usually used to digest beans. Or I could be barking up the wrong tree entirely.

[moriamerri.livejournal.com]

re: preachers: yeah, I do generally think this is part of the right way to eat -- beans in particular I think are very "good" food (I can't really imagine NOT eating beans!) -- but I have not given much thought to the gas issue relative to this, because whatever level of gas it causes me is not enough for me to notice it as a problem. So in my case my belief in the goodness of beans is little help. Maybe I've gotten used to some level of gas? -- I probably eat some form of beans almost every day.... Or maybe my digestion "adjusted". Whatever. I can see where it would seem less natural and good in your case, discomfort and pain being what it is ;)

Re: special cooking -- yep, if you can figure out what works for you that's it -- then you have the option to do the special stuff and eat only those beans made your way.

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

(By the way, I was indeed barking up the wrong tree, above.)

because whatever level of gas it causes me is not enough for me to notice it as a problem.

I hope I am not oversharing here (ha! in THIS thread?) but I'll just say that you are waaaaaaaaaay different from me. :) :)

Musing:

1. If Beano / alpha-galactosidase is the only key, I'm guessing there's no adjustment going on. The sites I've visited so far are crystal clear on the fact that this enzyme is not found in humans.

2. If Wikipedia can be trusted on the rest of the digestion chain, I'm probably okay on those enzymes.

So I wonder what it is, then, that makes you and some other commenters basically OK and comfortable, when I am basically a cluster bomb. :)

3. Varying activity levels in large-intestine fauna? That's the only thing I can think of that's left. If you have E.coli that don't eat much uncleaved raffinose, your body will just discard it, while my E.coli are going NUTS in there and I'm saying OW and trying to find a place to hide.

Sorry for length there. I'm thinking "out loud".

So maybe I have to boil the beans until there's nothing left of the problem sugars. (Maybe it will then be useless to eat those poor spent beans, maybe not.) It is also quite possible that "the right way" to eat is NOT the right way for ME. (No surprise; I'm allergic to most One-True-Wayism anyhow.) Or maybe there's something I can take to knock my E.coli for a loop. :)

[inflectionpoint.livejournal.com]

Don't think of it as knocking yer e coli for a loop, rather think of it as increasing biodiversity.

Seriously, you could eat yogurt, which has lactobacilli in it. I'd start there. That's a proven way to recolonize the body with bacteria that are beneficial for digestion.

If that doesn't work, you could look into probiotics, but those are a bit costly.

Yogurt (with active cultures, that is a keyword!) every day. Just a little bit. That may swing your digestion over. And it's generally a good way to does yourself with healthy bacteria.

Good luck!

[cjsmith.livejournal.com]

I'm confused. This will help me NOT have active E.coli digesting raffinose?

[edit: or whatever else digests raffinose? Is it because they'd be competing, now, with lactobacilli, for space if not for food, and thus the raffinose-eaters will decrease in number overall?]