Legumes and Beans…?!

How should we eat beans and legumes?!

Setareh Kiumarsi

Which qualities are dominant in legumes such as fava bean, lentil, split pea, beans, garbanzo bean, green peas and beans?
Are they hot? cold? dry? or moist?

Most of the legumes are cold and dry. Actually they are too dry!

When you eat a bowl of beans, it is like putting a sponge in a bowl of water! It absorbs all the water and makes its surrounding completely dry. So when there is a lot of undigested mucus in your digestive tube (especially in your colon), legumes act like a medicine, absorb the toxins and mucus and cleanse the colon!

However, the drying quality of legumes and beans are very intense and would not be easy for your body to deal with. when you consume too much of them or eat them a few days in a row, they will dry out the mucus membrane of your colon. This dryness increases Vata and creates different Vata imbalances.
The vata imbalances can lead to  constipation, dryness and stiffness in joints and muscles, anxiety, over-active thoughts, etc.

Now how should we consume legumes without aggravating Vata?!

• For those of you who are suffering from Vata symptoms such as gas, bloating, and chronic constipation, it is better to minimize the consumption of legumes in your diet. In general, if you consume beans and legumes, don’t consume them more than once every 7-10 days.
• Legumes should not comprise more than 10-20% of your meal.
• Small beans (such as mung beans, lentils or red lentils) are easier to digest than bigger ones (like garbanzo beans or kidney beans).
• When you consume beans, soak them over night and cook them with appropriate oils (such as olive oil, coconut oil or ghee) and digestive spices (such as cumin, cinnamon, cardamom, fennel, oregano, thyme, sage, rosemary and saffron).
• consume them in soups or stews and they will be more digestible.The water element in the soup and stew will decrease the dryness of legumes.
• As we told you before, legumes and beans are cold and dry so using an antidote would be a help! Something that increases heat and moisture in your digestive tube! One the best antidotes is Digestive yogurt drink (lassi)!
  Drink a cup of hot digestive yogurt drink with your meal (you can find the recipe of this drink in previous posts).