Here's the full lowdown on eating beans, including how to get rid of the lowdown
Although beans are the perfect food for endurance athletes, British and American athletes don't eat a lot of them - for a couple of reasons. Beans take a long time to cook, for one thing, and require some preparation skill to produce an optimal taste, but the key problem of course is that bean ingestion produces a lot of wind and diarrhoea, two outcomes which are not traditionally linked with peak athletic performances.
That's sad, because beans are high in carbohydrate, fairly rich in protein, and low in fat- or in other words, absolutely perfect for individuals who want to ingest high-performance food (small wonder that elite Kenyan runners eat beans on a regular basis).
Fortunately, it is possible to eat beans without chuming up your digestive system and gassing your loved ones, but before we tell you how to do that, let's provide a little bean info: dried beans are also called legumes, which are just vegetables which come in pods (beans, peas, and lentils are all considered legumes). A half- cup serving of cooked beans usually provides about 11145 calories of energy, with 665 per cent of the energy coming from complex carbohydrate and 225 per cent from protein. The additional bonus is that the half-cup will usually contain four to seven grams of fibre, especially the 'soluble' fibres which have been linked with lower blood cholesterol and more temperate blood-sugar levels. Research has detected that eating just one-half to one cup of beans per day is enough to send cholesterol on a downward spin and control the blood-sugar levels of diabetics. By 'bulking up' the contents of what one has eaten, the fibre in beans may also reduce appetite and assist people who are trying to lose weight, and of course there's the traditional evidence that the type of dietary fibre found in beans may reduce the risk of colon cancer.
Beans are a good source of many of the B vitamins which are important for athletes (home- cooked fresh beans are considerably better than tinned beans in this regard, however), and beans also bring good supplies of calcium, copper, iron, zinc, phosphorus, potassium and magnesium into athletes's bodies.
As mentioned, beans represent a decent source of protein. Although most beans have a protein content of about 225 per cent, soya beans represent the true protein bonanza, with 34 per cent of their calories coming from protein. In fact, a scant four-ounce serving of tofu (soya bean curd) offers up a rich 1 gram (4 calories) portion of protein. The charge against bean protein has been that it is not as well utilised as the protein from animal sources, but recent studies have shown soya bean protein to be equal in quality to animal protein. Another fine feature of bean protein is that it is the CHEAPEST source of protein in the world.
Since other types of beans are not as protein- potent as soya beans, it is a great idea to mix them with 'complementary' foods which fill in the key amino acids which the other beans lack. Putting beans with grains or flour is the usual strategy (beans and rice, beans and tortillas, and bean soup with pasta make wonderful, protein-complete meals).
Usually, beans present no problems with regard to fat, averaging no more than 2-per cent lipid. A half-cup serving of beans often contains just half a gram of fat. The exceptions are soya beans and peanuts, which have 19- and 50-per cent fat contents, respectively.
In addition to providing a rich larder of minerals and B vitamins, there's evidence that soya beans may actually help to prevent cancer. Soya beans are especially rich in cancer-fighting chemicals called phytoestrogens, which may attach to the surfaces of cells in the male prostate gland, preventing molecules of testosterone from 'docking' there. That's probably a good thing, because chronic exposure of the prostate gland to testosterone over a male's lifetime is thought to promote the development of cancer in this key part of the reproductive system. The phytoestrogens may reduce the risk of breast cancer in females, too.
But what about all that wind that emanates from the digestive system once beans are ingested? The wind occurs because beans contain carbohydrates which aren't well digested by the human digestive system. Bacteria naturally present in the human gut are only too happy to break down (ferment) these carbohydrates, however, producing carbon dioxide, hydrogen, and a few noxious gases in the process.
Fortunately, the gassy-colon effect can be deflated by the following process: soak beans in water for four to five hours before cooking and then discard the water. Nine cups of fresh water should then be added for each cup of raw beans. After 10 minutes of boiling and 30 minutes of simmering, this new water should also be thrown out If the beans require still more preparation, put in more water, simmer your concoction, and throw this final water away, too, when the beans are ready. Bear in mind that most beans require one to two hours of preparation; fortunately, most of the vitamins and minerals are NOT lost when beans are prepared as indicated above.
Also note that some of the intestinal discomfort associated with bean eating is simply due to beans' high fibre content. You can adapt to this if you do it slowly, starting with a quarter-cup serving of beans the first time and working up.
But what about taste? Boiled beans can be notoriously bland, but not if you follow a bean recipe favored by John Ngugi, five-time world cross country champion. In Ngugi's dish, called 'irio' in Kenya, beans are blended with potatoes and corn to create a very palatable dish which is perfect for endurance athletes. John Ngugl' Irio Ingredients
4 cobs of sweet corn 1 cup peas 2 cups of beans
4 medium potatoes Salt
Plenty of water Method
1. Boil the beans (as indicated above) for one to two hours.
2. Cut kernels from the cobs.
3. Add the corn kernels and peas to the beans and cook until almost done. 4. Add potatoes and cook until soft.
5. Mash everything together while it is still hot. 6. Serve with bread or rice, or with chicken, goat or beef stew
The bottom line is that it's impossible to beat beans as a food for endurance athletes. Beans boost your leg muscle glycogen levels, increase the fibre content of your diet, may lower your risk of prostate or breast cancer, and deliver a decent dollop of vitamins and minerals while giving you a slug of serviceable protein at the same time. ('A Hill of Beans: The Latest on Legumes, ' The Physician and Sports medicine, vol. 23(6), pp. 13-14, 1995)