Posted on 01/10/2006 11:35:00 AM PST by pissant
Many people are put off from eating beans by the much joked-about side effect – flatulence. But a new variety of the flatulence-free manteca bean, grown in the UK, could help encourage more people to consume the fibre- and protein-rich food.
Known as Prim Beans, the new variety was developed by Dr Colin Leakey who first started looking into flatulence-free beans in the late 1960s when he was working in Uganda. He noticed that mothers were reluctant to feed their children beans because they would develop colic. This meant that they were missing out on a very valuable source of protein. Manteca beans have long been grown in Chile, and their no-flatulence property is believed to be due to the tannins in their seed coat. Dr Leakey found a way to make these beans suitable for the UK climate. Part of the rationale behind this was to give farmers another crop, which could help with crop rotation and reduce the need for agrichemicals.
Prim Beams are now being processed and marketed by Cambridge, UK-based Phaseolus, which sources beans from all around the world and soaks, cooks and freezes them for use by food manufacturers.
Phaseolus' Sandra Hopper told NutraIngredients.com that she believes Prim Beans will have a good use in foods aimed at people who are more susceptible to digestive problems, in particular children and elderly people.
“I think kids' meals would be perfect,” she said. “But it is yet to be proven how far this will push more people into eating beans.”
Hooper said that Phaseolus' frozen beans has encouraged more food manufacturers to use beans in their products, and she likes to think that the company is contributing to a resurgence of interest in beans in the UK.
In 2005 Phaseolus' sales were up 40 per cent on the previous year. It currently sells over 600 tonnes of beans to manufactures.
So far, the company has not found a food company that is prepared to market the benefits of Prim Beans, although Get Real, which has just started selling ready-to-cook organic adzuki beans, has expressed an interest in using them for a similar product.
Between 5 and 6 tonnes of Prim Beans are currently grown in Essex each year, but this can be scaled up to meet demand. The first organic crop was announced in November.
But Rebecca Foster, a nutrition scientist for the British Nutrition Foundation, said she is not sure that the flatulence issue is what puts people off beans.
“The more you eat beans, the more your digestive system gets used to them and flatulence becomes less of a problem,” she said.
She explained that intestinal gas results from colonic bacterial fermentation of the indigestible oligosaccharides, the carbohydrate in beans, and cited a small study which indicated that although there was no change in the quantity of gas excreted with long-term bean consumption over short-term, individuals reported greater tolerance and less physical discomfort the longer beans were in their diet.
Foster stressed that beans are an excellent source of nutrition since they contain many of the important nutrients we need – that is, fibre, carbohydrates and protein.
“We are fully for the bean,” she said.
Pork and Beans just wouldn't seem right no mo.
Loss of entertainment options?
LOL.
SBDs already fulfill that function.
You are only *Deadly* if you drink Beer, injest Cauliflower
refried beans and Brussel Sprouts!!!!
Hey, I like all those foods. I was thinking egg salad was more a culprit. LOL
I can see WHY!
Pinto beans cooked in chili, along with an egg salad sandwich, washed down by a cold Heineken. Now there's a recipe for a rich, ripe fart! My wife refuses to come near me when I eat that, but the boys think it's pretty funny!
Dr Leakey, Colin....
ROFLOL!
"I theenk you have made a wheeef!!!"
At that point, the Frenchman got up and switched seats. So why would I want flatulent-free beans? Flatulence is what makes beans FUN (and sometimes useful) to eat.
"Flatulence-free beans could stir up new interest"
What! If it wasn't for the hilarious flatulence, who would even eat beans? Scientists need to work on a bean that causes even more amusing noises.
Johnson was at a formal dinner. One of the female guests at the table was in the process of standing up when she accidentally let loose with an incredible fart. Everybody at the table froze in embarrassed silence. As a quick afterthought, the woman scuffed her shoe against the floor in a pathetic attempt to make everybody think that the fart was really her shoe scrapping against the floor.
Still an embarrassed silence from the dinner guests...except from Samuel Johnson who calmly observed thusly:
"Madam, we heard you the first time. There is no need to make it rhyme."
Our family goes by the creed; "A family that toots together, stays together".
Well, this should help global warming, shouldn't it?
Shouldn't this be in "breaking" news?
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