New Orleans, LA

Here’s something I have never heard of, read beans can make you sick. I ran across this article, Why Red Beans And Rice Can Be Nauseating. I knew red beans could make you fart and if you eat too much it’s like a fiber bomb but I didn’t know it could literally make you sick.

According to the article:

Scientists have discovered how lectins, a family of proteins believed to be a natural insecticide that is abundant in undercooked legumes and grains, can make you feel temporarily miserable.

I searched around to see what a lectin is. Lectins are carbohydrate-binding proteins or glycoproteins which are highly specific for their sugar moieties. Yeah, that didn’t help me either.

Have you heard of ricin? It was used by the Russians to kill a spy. They poked him with a special umbrella and it injected ricin into him. He died shortly after. Ricin comes from the castor bean and is highly toxic. Apparently, under cooked read beans can have something of the same effect.

“It’s known that it can be a toxin,” Dr. Paul L. McNeil, cell biologist at the Medical College of Georgia, says of the lectin protein that’s commonly found in vegetables. Lectins, which bind strongly to carbohydrates that decorate cell surfaces, have a particular affinity for the heavy-carbohydrate coats of epithelial cells that line the gastrointestinal tract.

Lectins can block the ability of your GI system to repair itself. Alcohol can have the same effect but according to one of the scientists quoted, lectin does it much better. When your GI system is taking damage, your blood starts getting polluted and you get sick.

Apparently, the ability of the lectins to break down that repair causes more mucus to be excreted and that, in addition to the fiber, is what helps keep you regular. So, does that mean that having beans too often is a problem? If so, I am in deep trouble.

LewisC’s Red Beans and Rice

16oz bag of red beans
2 nice size ham hocks
16oz Andouille
1 green pepper
1 large onion
4 clove garlic
4 stalks of celery
2 carrots
thyme, oregano, chilli powder, garlic powder, salt, black pepper, cayenne

Soak beans as is your preference. I don’t drain after soaking. I use the same water.

After beans have been soaked, make sure the beans are covered by at least two inches of water.

Put on a medium heat until simmering and then lower to maintain a simmer. Drop in the ham hocks now. Cook for 1 hour.

Chop veggies as fine as you like. I like them semi-chunky. Put them in now. Cook for 1 hour more.

Remove ham hocks and extract the meat if you want to use it. Chop the sausage and put it in the pot. Add pinch of thyme and oregano. Add 1 teaspoon of chilli powder, garlic powder, and black pepper. Add salt and cayenne to taste. Half a teaspoon usually works for me. Cook 30 minutes.

Take out a cup or so of beans and mash them. I use a form to mash. Put them back in the pot. Raise the fire until a slight boil and cook for 30 minutes.

That should do it. My wife loves this recipe. I typed this off the top of my head. I don’t normally use recipes. If you try it out, let me know how it goes and how it tastes.

Take care,

LewisC

new orleans, food, red beans, creole, lectin, food poisoning, recipe