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Lately I've been experimenting with sprouting beans like chickpeas and soy beans and then lightly steaming them to make them easier to digest. The raw sprouts tend to be difficult for even the strongest digestive system to handle well but just fine when steamed.
But is this any better than just cooking the beans?
I read that David Wolfe doesn't recommend beans as a food at all, but can be yummy. Lentil sprouts are good too.
Any thoughts about this?
But is this any better than just cooking the beans?
I read that David Wolfe doesn't recommend beans as a food at all, but can be yummy. Lentil sprouts are good too.
Any thoughts about this?
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Hawaii
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Re: Sprouting and Steaming Beans
Thu, November 27, 2008 - 1:21 AMSprouting is almost always healthier and the majority of most nutrients will not be lost by light steaming or flash frying. its not technically raw and you might lose some vitamins and enzymes, but you may digest and assimilate more of whats left if you steam them. Many beans are toxic in their raw state and must be cooked to b eaten. Other beans like mung beans and adzuki beans should not require any cooking at all. I prefer them raw to steamed and they should be easily digested. -
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Re: Sprouting and Steaming Beans
Thu, November 27, 2008 - 3:17 PMi think that if a food is hard to digest, we weren't meant to eat it. -
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Re: Sprouting and Steaming Beans
Thu, November 27, 2008 - 3:18 PMhard to digest in its natural state, that is.
plants foods don't grow with instructions on how to cook them. -
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Re: Sprouting and Steaming Beans
Thu, November 27, 2008 - 4:49 PM.....that may be true for free-ranging animals.
Only we humans were given the gift of fire... which makes an entirely other order of nutrition accessible -- transformed foods unavailable to the lower orders. People using Fire is part of the Plan of Creation. -
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Re: Sprouting and Steaming Beans
Thu, November 27, 2008 - 7:07 PMFire 'transforms' the life energetics and chemistries of edibles into a degraded and dead product. Empty calories, minerals and chemistries rendered into choas and relative unavailabilty. If you start with a plant substance not inherently very edible.... perhaps the worst fire can do is make it unedible in a different and more "easily absorbed" way. Flavorful heat-warped chemistries that can keep you alive, and at the cost of Aging you and leading you towards slow degenerative disease. -
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Re: Sprouting and Steaming Beans
Fri, November 28, 2008 - 3:05 AMI dont disagree with you Leslie. However, in a survival situation I would not eat a food that is toxic in its raw state just to maintain a raw lifestyle. Through history we have survived where we might have died because a wider range of foods were available to us that were only edible after they were cured, fermented or cooked.
Food generally contain the most nutrition when it is in its raw fresh state. Cooking destroys some of the nutrients. Dehydrating destroys some of the nutrients. Fermenting destroys some of the nutrients (though can produce new ones). Curing saps some of the nutrients (Though can also wash out toxins). Dehydrated raw fruit does not contain everything that a fresh living fruit has, but it still has nutrition.
If you are devoted to the raw lifestyle then you probably shouldnt choose foods that are difficult to digest in their raw form. If you must eat those foods, I would generally advise that you use some method to destroy and degrade the toxins or indigestible portion of the food. I have heard of raw foodists who find other was to cure their food such as soaking in oil or vinegar. -
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Re: Sprouting and Steaming Beans
Fri, November 28, 2008 - 10:00 AMYes, I wouldn't advocate eating raw toxic at all, just do advocate not choosing to go there as long as there are other non-toxic raw foods that don't require cooking to make edible (let's dehabituate from eating what has to be cooked, if possible). Cultural survival food habits are heavily promoted even when there is rich abundance of far better raw foods available. -
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Re: Sprouting and Steaming Beans
Fri, November 28, 2008 - 12:27 PMOften, the soaking phase of bean sprouting will leach out some/many toxins. Discard the first, and maybe even second day's soak water, and rinse before trying it.
Has anyone heard of rejuvelac?
As to heating foods... yes it kills quite a few nutrients/enzymes. On the other hand it makes some nutrients/enzymes more easily accessible, without as difficult a digestion phase. Before choosing to go full-on hard raw vegan, calculate the energy (and indeed the *ability*) required for the body to break down that food. Often, going raw is a trade-off. Again, your system may decide to reject part of that last raw meal as too difficult to digest, or simply indigestible, and then eliminate it. -
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This is the maximum depth. Additional responses will not be threaded.
Re: Sprouting and Steaming Beans
Fri, November 28, 2008 - 9:29 PM"Cultural survival food habits are heavily promoted even when there is rich abundance of far better raw foods available"
this is very true. My dad is a salesman and is on the road all day long. He waits too long to eat, his blood sugar crashes, and then he panics and gets into survival mode, stopping into the nearest drive-thru. He behaves as if he is truly starving and will eat anything he can get immediately. I have suggested many times that he keep some trail mix and fruit juice in the car with him, to avoid getting into that survival mode and making poor nutrition choices.
I feel that for those who know that raw is best, the decision to choose a food that is not very digestible in the raw state and cook it to make it easier to eat, is one made from clinging to a psychological "need" for that food. There are plenty of foods available that can be eaten 100% raw, the spectrum of which is enough to provide us with all of our required nutrients. I think that as more and more people embark upon a completely raw and living foods lifestyle, more information will surface as to which legumes are non-toxic and digestible when sprouted, and which should be avoided entirely by the raw foodist.
It appears to be mostly speculative at this time, though most people agree that sprouted lentils are a very digestible and healthful legume. I was unsure about chick peas, myself. The first time i attempted raw hummus, i only soaked them for a day before making the hummus. The result was chunky hummus that tasted kind of bitter and chalky, and didn't feel so good going down. The next time i made it, i let the beans soak for at least three days until i saw the little tails on the beans. Then i pureed it much longer than the first time. This seemed to have broken down or eliminated the toxins because it tasted delicious and my tummy was fine after eating quite a bit of it. Yes, soaking and discarding the water daily is important. I think Briggi is right about that, toxins being eliminated during soaking. I wonder if those toxins are actually those enzyme inhibitors that keep the bean from sprouting prematurely.
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