#129 - The Science Behind Properly Prepared Beans (and how to do it at home!)

Beans, Beans, the magical fruit, the more you eat, the more you absorb valuable minerals and proteins, improve your cardiovascular function and the health of your arterial walls as well as cholesterol and fat absorption, boost your digestion and gut bacteria health, and enjoy an array of bright and colorful foods - but what about that other, turbulent side benefit?

In this explosive episode, we will break down, like an enzyme breaks down an oligosaccharide, the compounds in beans and the processes in your body that can cause the possible noxious side benefits, as well as what ancestral peoples did to deal with this - aside from cracking ancient jokes that never get old. We will discuss in detail a patented process purported to eliminate ALL of the potentially thunderous side-effects using only water, time and heat, and we will additionally talk about herbs that can be cooked or served alongside beans to quell the claps of cheeky applause.

There is a copious amount of additional material that I could only include in the show notes for reasons of being too inappropriate to read on air, and they can be found on our website, ancestralkitchenpodcast.com by clicking the Episodes drop-down. I tested the absolute technology limits with the length of show notes today and ran out of room on our podcast apps, so go and enjoy the mountains of links and additional text I put there for you to enjoy.

In this episode I hope you will find the critical information you need to understand the possible pitfalls of beans and where those pitfalls come from, and leave feeling confident in how to deal with them and enjoy not only beans, but all their benefits - and none of their possible sound effects. Researching this episode left me all the more in awe of the incredible, ancient value beans bring to our diet, and more determined than ever to include them in a variety of meals across the week without what the Bard called any "strange eruptions".

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Resources:

Check the show notes for this episode on https://ancestralkitchenpodcast.com/category/podcast/ . Additional show note material doubles the content you see here! On the website you will also see the ancestral jokes alluded to in the episode, as well as the newspaper clippings from the Duke of Windsor's wedding including the advertisement for bile beans!

Corned Beef recipe

How long have humans been eating beans?

The Story of Beans in Mexican Cuisine

Karen Hurd’s research on beans and bile - story starts at about 8 minutes in

London Musem bile beans

Bacteroides thetaiotaomicron utilization of RFO (raffinose family oligosaccharides)

What is Raffinose?

Article about Steve Sando and Rancho Gordo (behind a paywall, but new viewers are allowed an article or two before paying)

Sumerian Jokes

Ancient Anatolian bread

The Rise and Fall of Çatalhöyük: A Neolithic Matriarchy?

Neolithic Site of Çatalhöyük

Did Vikings and ancient Norse peoples eat beans?

When were potatoes introduced to England?

Does epazote reduce gassiness?

Epazote seeds from Mountain Rose Herbs (organic)

Yerba Santa

Fonda san Miguel

What do digestive bitters do?

What does epazote do to beans? “Epazote’s ability to reduce gas production is thought to be due to its carminative properties. Carminatives are ingredients that help to relieve gas and bloating in the digestive system. Epazote’s carminative properties are believed to work by reducing the amount of gas produced by bacteria in the large intestine. This is achieved through the inhibition of the growth of gas-producing bacteria, as well as the reduction of the amount of oligosaccharides that are fermented. As a result, epazote can help to reduce the discomfort and bloating associated with eating beans.”

Other carminative herbs

More carminative herbs

Sources - Garden Treasures (they do not sell online), Rancho Gordo, Hodmedods

Pressure canning book

Soaking beans

WAPF article on soaking beans

Don't use hard water to soak beans

Rancho Gordo recipes on their website

The Best Hummus (it really is! The process is magic)

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