Beans - bioenergetic superfood?
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Beans are one of the densest sources of dietary fiber. Fiber is sometimes underrated by the Peat community but it's necessary for excreting estrogen and toxins via bowel movements, hence the famous carrot salad.
Beans are decently high in protein. Beans are higher in the glycine:methionine ratio than almost every cut of meat (check here to confirm:https://tools.myfooddata.com/nutrient-ratio-tool/glycine/methionine/beans-and-lentils+meats/common/grams/no). Pairing beans with dairy or meat will provide a complete protein profile. Chris Masterjohn has said that getting many of your proteins from legumes is one way of balancing glycine and methionine (https://x.com/ChrisMasterjohn/status/1785366743801610340).
Approximately 1% of the iron content of beans is absorbed. This makes beans significantly safer in terms of preventing iron overload than red meat. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/6741854/
Many beans have virtually no fat or PUFAs.
Peat was against legumes for their antinutrients and starches. All food is ultimately a trade off and it's impossible to create a perfectly flawless diet outside of the lab. Soaking and cooking beans neutralizes many of the antinutrients and there are many benefits to eating starches. I know of no other food that combines high glycine protein with fiber and is also dirt cheap.
Also, it is clear that many of the misguided souls on lowtoxinforum.com improved their health significantly after adding beans to their diet. Adding beans and eliminating dairy would both help balance glycine to methionine. What they attribute to "vitamin A toxicity" from their former dairy consumption is probably just the side effects they had from not balancing glycine to methionine and not eating enough fiber.
I think beans might be worth the trade off if your gut is able to tolerate them. Has anyone on this forum had good or bad experiences with incorporating beans into their diet?
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@VehmicJuryman said in Beans - bioenergetic superfood?:
Peat was against legumes for their antinutrients and starches.
RP has never said he was against starches but whenever another source of carbs was available, he would have given preference to a source like fruits, provided they didn’t contains seeds like in some berries. In fact, it’s often a question of frequency and amount eaten in once.
https://raypeat.com/articles/articles/vegetables.shtml
Excerpt:
A particular plant will have a variety of defensive chemicals, with specific functions. Underground, the plant’s roots and tubers are susceptible to attack by fungi and nematodes. The leaves, stems, and seeds are susceptible to attack by insects, birds, and grazing animals. Since the plant’s seeds are of unique importance to the plant, and contain a high concentration of nutrients, they must have special protection. Sometimes this consists of a hard shell, and sometimes of chemicals that inhibit the animal’s digestive enzymes. Many plants have evolved fruits that provide concentrated food for animals, and that serve to distribute the seeds widely, as when a bird eats a berry, and excretes the undigested seed at a great distance. If the fruit were poisonous, it wouldn’t serve the plant’s purpose so well. In general, the plant’s most intense toxins are in its seeds, and the fruits, when mature, generally contain practically no toxins. Roots contain chemicals that inhibit microorganisms, but because they aren’t easily accessible by grazing animals and insects, they don’t contain the digestive inhibitors that are more concentrated in the above-ground organs of the plant.
The toxins of plants include phenols, tannins, lectins/agglutinins, and trypsin-inhibitors, besides innumerable more specific metabolic inhibitors, including “anti-vitamins.” Unsaturated fats themselves are important defenses, since they inhibit trypsin and other proteolytic enzymes, preventing the assimilation of the proteins that are present in seeds and leaves, and disrupting all biological processes that depend on protein breakdown, such as the formation of thyroid hormone and the removal of blood clots.
Generally, fruits, roots, and tubers provide a high concentration of nutrients along with low concentrations of toxic anti-metabolic substances.Comment (LucH):
In my opinion, it's mostly a question of frequency and quantity. Protecting the species. With moderation and discernment, there will generally be no problem. Except in special cases (intolerance, low-grade inflammation in the digestive system, dysbiosis, lack of digestive enzymes, etc.)
And yes, some legumes are less problematic:
Snap beans and lentils, for example. But not everyone is willing to soak beans to eliminate phytates. Eliminating them is a decoy. Let's say reducing them then.
But yes, combining a legume with a cereal is a good option to improve the amino acid profile. Compensation. But I wouldn't tempt fate like that if you don't have a bowel movement twice a day. Avoid starch stagnation in the second part of the colon if you don't want it to swarm (bacterial proliferation of species that don't need to squat there when intestinal transit has slowed or been sluggish for a week or two). -
@VehmicJuryman said in Beans - bioenergetic superfood?:
Has anyone on this forum had good or bad experiences with incorporating beans into their diet?
As long as I don't eat tomato beans twice in a row (so spaced a day apart, or at least 36 hours), I haven't any digestive reaction. Otherwise, I burp. Easier with a pinch of soda powder.
