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Flatulence-free beans could stir up new interest
NutraIngredients.com ^ | 1/10/2006 | Jess Halliday

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.


TOPICS: Business/Economy
KEYWORDS: cheese
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Goodbye to the savings on the heating bills at night.
1 posted on 01/10/2006 11:35:01 AM PST by pissant
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To: pissant

Well there goes the fragrance candle industry!


2 posted on 01/10/2006 11:37:46 AM PST by silverleaf (Fasten your seat belts- it's going to be a BUMPY ride.)
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To: silverleaf

And I'm divesting of my stock in Glade


3 posted on 01/10/2006 11:38:37 AM PST by pissant
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To: pissant

I got wind of this development the other day. Not something I'd bring up in an elevator with a stranger, but pretty interesting. At the same time,it could be another science hoax -- I dunno, something doesn't smell quite right.


4 posted on 01/10/2006 11:39:05 AM PST by ClearCase_guy
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To: ClearCase_guy

You are very punny!


5 posted on 01/10/2006 11:40:08 AM PST by pissant
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To: pissant

This could prove to be hugh!


6 posted on 01/10/2006 11:40:50 AM PST by 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten (Is your problem ignorance or apathy? I don't know and I don't care.)
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To: 2 Kool 2 Be 4-Gotten

Wives the world over will celebrate the end of the Dutch Oven.


7 posted on 01/10/2006 11:41:58 AM PST by pissant
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To: pissant

"More beans, Mr. Taggert?"

8 posted on 01/10/2006 11:43:44 AM PST by Yo-Yo
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To: pissant

Pissant,

Thanks as always for the compelling news stories you seem to find!

Great work and well done!

Personally, regular beans work just fine for me.

Let'r rip!


9 posted on 01/10/2006 11:44:24 AM PST by WhiteGuy (Vote for gridlock)
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To: Yo-Yo

A true CLASSIC


10 posted on 01/10/2006 11:45:30 AM PST by pissant
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To: WhiteGuy

Coworkers don't appreciate that attitude! ;o)


11 posted on 01/10/2006 11:46:08 AM PST by pissant
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To: pissant

12 posted on 01/10/2006 11:46:41 AM PST by martin_fierro (< |:)~)
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To: pissant

Good gawd pissant, I can't believe you didn't jump all over this one.

Girlie-man beans. Hells bells, the flatulence is the main reason I eat beans.

Called PRIM beans. If I'm gonna be PRIM and PROPER, I ain't gonna be eating beans.

And then the Dr's name. You can't tell me you didn't laugh at the guy's name. Try looking at it from the phone book listing: Leakey, Colin, M.D. And he's a FART doctor.

Sorry folks that's where I quit reading. This has The Onion or Scrappleface written all over it.


13 posted on 01/10/2006 11:47:29 AM PST by NerdDad (There are few things worse than chili strained thru a dog.)
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To: pissant
But the more you f@rt, the better you feel!!

So no more beans for every meal!

14 posted on 01/10/2006 11:47:42 AM PST by freedomlover (If you read this tag line, all your wildest dreams will come true.)
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To: pissant

No longer "the musical fruit"?


15 posted on 01/10/2006 11:50:30 AM PST by PBRSTREETGANG
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To: pissant

True, but as a very wise woman I once knew said,


"If you want to live to be 100, where ever you may be, let your wind blow free!"

She lived to be 96, so I guess those times she "held back" cost here a few years......................


16 posted on 01/10/2006 11:51:30 AM PST by WhiteGuy (Vote for gridlock)
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To: cdbear; Clarinet_King

Hey yall. Over here.


17 posted on 01/10/2006 11:52:51 AM PST by NerdDad (There are few things worse than chili strained thru a dog.)
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To: pissant

Beans, beans, the magical fruit

The new one are quiet, so you'll be mute.


18 posted on 01/10/2006 11:52:53 AM PST by Sax
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To: martin_fierro

I NEVER need such drugs.


19 posted on 01/10/2006 12:00:02 PM PST by pissant
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To: NerdDad

The name seems a tad suspicious, but go to the website, I think it's real.


20 posted on 01/10/2006 12:00:36 PM PST by pissant
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