Step right up! Get yer fiber right here! This is a non-stop

train from your mouth right through your digestive system.

Amenities such as gas, bloating, irritable bowel syndrome,

cramps, excess glycemic load, and small intestine puncturing,

are all provided!

Funny right? Not really.

So, I'm thinking that something you have to soak and

boil to make edible, has a toxic protective agent like

Lectins, and is 70% carbohydrate really isn't a good

food choice. What about you?

The story is that beans are not nearly as bad as wheat,

but they do contain substances in abundance called Lectins,

which are protective coatings that ward off predators for plants

and do nasty things to our digestive system. Lectins can be

substantially dissipated by soaking or boiling, but that does not

change the fact that they are completely inferior to vegetables and

fruit in the fiber department, contain trace amounts of protein compared

to meats, and do cause gut irritation and the potential for all the other

bad stuff such as: Systemic Inflammation, Intestinal Perforation, Gut Leakage,

Immune Response, and Increased Glycemic Load on the Liver and Pancreas.

Beans are a type of legume, along with peas and lentils...and peanuts.

‘A legume fruit is a simple dry fruit that develops from a simple carpel and usually dehisces (opens along a seam) on two sides. A common name for this type of fruit is a pod, although the term "pod" is also applied to a few other fruit types, such as vanilla and radish. Well-known legumes include alfalfa, clover, peas, beans, lentils, lupins, mesquite, carob, soy, and peanuts.’

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legume

Beans are usually touted by the majority of the population as beneficial for two reasons: Good Protein and Fiber. The fact is, they are neither. On average, they are 70% carbohydrate, and you know what that does to your Insulin release, meats, eggs, and nuts have far more protein, and their fiber content is dwarfed by fruits and vegetables. They are also a preferred crop, (like grains), for farmers and food manufacturers because they are cheap to produce, easy to grow, store, have a long shelf life, and can be processed or formed into many other foods.

Protein
Beans are raved for their high protein content, but that is really not the case providing on average only: 4-9 grams per half cup. But worse is that their carbohydrate content can soar into the 20+ gram area for the same serving. That protein/carb ratio is not what you are after.

½ Cup Servings:                                         Compared to other foods:
Kidney: 8g                                                    Meat or Fish: 7g per oz
Garbanzo: 7.5g                                             Eggs: 6g each
Black: 7.5g                                                   Almonds: 16g ½ cup
Pinto: 7g                                                      Walnuts: 10g
Soy: 14.5g                                                    Pecans: 5g
Lentils: 8.5 g                                                 Cashews: 10g

Fiber
Yup, there’s fiber, and that stunts the insulin punch you would get through eating straight sugar and grains, but you know by now that vegetables (4x the fiber) and fruit (8x the fiber) are much superior sources.

Vitamins and Minerals
Beans provide these too, esp. magnesium, zinc, &, but again: vegetables and fruits win again. But, due to their Lectin content, many of these minerals do not get absorbed, but drug through the intestinal tract only to be eliminated.

So What Causes the Gas?
Beans cause gas because they contain a sugar called an Oligosaccharide. The human body does not have the appropriate enzyme to break down and absorb this large-molecule sugar in the three sections of the small intestine as other sugars are. These Oligosaccharides make it all the way through the GI tract to the large intestine still intact and largely unchanged. Once they reach the large intestine, bacteria feed on them, producing copious amounts of flatus.

At the end of the day, a few beans might not be bad. Some are worse than others, kidney beans being the worst. But, you soak 'em, you boil 'em, combine 'em with a bunch of protein and fat, lessen the blow....so to speak! I put them in the ‘every-so-often-if-I-have-to eat-them’ category, say in a friend’s chili or a burrito. But, seeing as their nutritional content is nowhere near that of vegetables, they are really pretty much tasteless unless dressed up, knowing the bad stuff they bring to the party, and the almost guaranteed bloating and gas, I avoid them.

Beans Aren't As Healthy As You Think!