let's look at how to cook beans. the soaking, the cooking methods, what does the science say is
the best way to get the most benefit out of these nutrition powerhouses. first, should we soak or not?
most people soak so beans will cook faster but there are other benefits. beans contain
some great nutrients but they also contain some stuff we want to reduce, like the famous lectins
yeah you often get that reaction nowadays when you mention the L word. we'll come back to why
they're not a big deal. you may also have heard of something called phytates. now, phytates sounds like
something out of a boxing match but it's actually a kind of nutrient package. if you go on a hike you
might pack some food for later. beans do exactly the same. beans are seeds at the end of the day
so they store nutrients for later when they sprout and need those nutrients to grow and the way they
store them are phytates. that's all fine and dandy, only problem is phytates bind strongly to calcium,
iron, zinc etc making it really hard for us to absorb those minerals. soaking breaks down the
phytates and frees up those nutrients for us to absorb. okay, how long should we soak? as we all
know, beans swell in water. after 16 hours they're saturated, they're done absorbing water so usually
overnight, one day, is a solid ballpark. believe it or not, teams of scientists have actually sat there
and measured what happens to beans if they soak for one day, two days, three days... your tax dollars
hard at work! so phytates actually keep dropping up to three days so if you want to soak longer, two
or three days, you can. otherwise, one day is a solid soak. another great option is to sprout. all you do
is drain the soaking water and leave the beans sitting in a jar or bowl and rinse once a day
that's it. four to six days total seems to be ideal. sprouting gets rid of the most phytates
and it also makes the nutrients in beans more absorbable. it also increases the antioxidant power
of beans, peas, chickpeas etc. the exception are lentils which actually seem to lose antioxidant
power with sprouting. so if you want to sprout your beans, go for it. if not if, you don't have the time,
just give them a good soak, still a great food. i always wondered why the water changes color when
you soak beans. with black beans it gets dark, with chickpeas it gets kind of yellowish. yeah because
that's the type of thing that keeps me up at night... it turns out the coloring is exactly because there
are soluble constituents of the beans that are leaching out into the water which is why before
cooking the bean experts recommend discarding the soaking water. switching to fresh water
gets rid of the phytates that leached out during soaking. also, beans are notorious for causing gas
some people even avoid them altogether because of that. that's caused by some oligosaccharides,
some small natural sugars in beans. turns out those also leach out during soaking so discarding
the soaking water helps get rid of them as well so adding that step may help us get the best of beans
without the worst. also, if you're not used to eating beans just start slow, small amounts
and then slowly build it up, that allows your gut bugs, your microbiome, to slowly grow, it's just like
building muscle at the gym. okay, cooking. cooking also helps reduce the phytates and the lectins
okay let's deal with this real quick, there are several reasons why we shouldn't be scared of le...
i mean, of these. first, they're highly thermolabile which means they're destroyed
by cooking. it's been repeatedly shown that after 10 minutes at boiling temperature
lectin activity is reduced to zero. second, lectins have also been tied to some potential benefits
including anti-cancer activity. the point is not that we should go buy lectin supplements or stuff
our face with purified lectins, the point is these things are rarely black and white,
good and bad, it's usually a matter of amount and context so even foods we don't necessarily
cook like tomatoes are not suddenly overnight made unhealthy because they contain lectins
that doesn't make any nutritional sense. we know if a food is health-promoting or
disease-promoting from direct tests of that food, not from speculating about an individual
component in a vacuum. now, of course this goes both ways, sometimes people want to argue
eggs are bad or olive oil is bad strictly on the basis of a component. the food industry also
loves this logic, some ultra processed artificial food is suddenly good because it contains vitamins
that's not a strong argument. has the food itself been shown to promote health or disease? that's the
bottom line, the rest is misdirection. legumes are consistently tied to beneficial outcomes whether
it's in controlled scientific experiments where they're swapped with other foods
or observations of long-lived populations, across the board they come out as huge winners. finding a
new molecule doesn't change anything. the direct test of that food already accounted for all the
components. we already know the net effect of legumes is massively positive regardless
of what each individual molecule is doing. so we don't need to be scared of lectins anymore
okay cool that worked. okay how should we cook beans? some studies suggest steaming over boiling
because it seems to retain more antioxidant activity. they also mention pressure steaming
using a steaming basket inside the pressure cooker but if you don't have that apparatus, regular
steaming or pressure cooking generally looks a little bit better than regular boiling. again,
lentils are the odd man out, regular old boiling seems to work best for them. quick parenthesis,
the point of all this information is not to make us OCD. peace of mind is also huge for health. in
this house, we have a pressure cooker so we use it but when i'm traveling or i'm somewhere else
i use whatever i have, regular pan, whatever. unless you do something really weird like eat raw beans
they're a great food no matter how you cook them. people have been eating them for eons and enjoying
their benefits without reading a thousand studies on how to cook beans so please don't stress over
this. all that said, since my fellow nerds sat there and watched chickpeas boil for a living
and we have all this information at our fingertips and this fellow nerd went through all the studies
why not be aware of the information and get that extra benefit if it's not any extra work? how long
you cook your beans depends on your equipment and your method of cooking, of course. you want them
soft enough to squish with a fork or between your fingers. ballpark, an hour give or take if you're
boiling or steaming. if you're boiling in the pressure cooker, 10 to 15 minutes is usually enough
okay what do we do with the cooking water? some of the bean components leach into the cooking
water just like during soaking. that goes for those oligosaccharides that can cause some gas
and it also goes for the minerals like calcium, iron and zinc so here you have a choice because
it depends from person to person: if gas is a problem for you, you can discard the cooking
water and minimize those oligosaccharides. otherwise you can consume the cooking water
if you want and get those extra minerals, in a soup for example. if you can eat beans like a champ and
no gas crisis, you can do that. or if you're upset at your family and you want to punish them. learn
all kinds of tips with these videos. one last tip for iron: the iron and beans is non-heme
and you can boost the absorption by having it with a source of vitamin C like red bell
peppers or with some onions or garlic or with a source of beta-carotene. all of those boost your
absorption of non-heme iron. need more ideas for plant protein? here's my top seven and here's some
more on iron. how to maximize absorption and get all the iron you need. i'll see you next week