Beans, Beans, the Magical Fruit…

Okay, so beans aren’t a fruit, but hey, it rhymes with “Toot,” and that makes little kids (and adults who act like kids) giggle, so, go with it.  January 6th is National Bean Day, and it’s time to celebrate this “magical” legume!

Because National Bean Day falls in the middle of winter, it’s the perfect excuse to cook a favorite comfort food. Wondering why National Bean Day is held on January 6? That’s the same day as the famous geneticist, Gregor Mendel, died in 1884. Mendel used bean plants and pea plants to develop theories on genetics in plants. So the formation of National Bean Day has more to do with scientific development than how good bean recipes taste. But don’t let that deter you from enjoying eating beans on this holiday!

Bean cultivation can be traced all the way back to 7000 B.C. win Peru and Mexico, so they have been with us as a major food source forever!  If you choose to celebrate National Bean Day by trying a few different kinds of beans, you’ll have a whole bunch of them to sample. Green string beans, pinto beans, navy beans, black beans, and red kidney beans are among the most popular types of beans grown in the United States.

Here’s another reason to celebrate the humble bean.  If you’re looking to save a bit of money on your food bill, beans are among the most cost effective foods you can eat, so in a time when inflation is hitting us all at the grocery store checkout, that’s a big bonus. And if you’re looking for a source of protein that’s quite a bit cheaper than beef or chicken, beans are the answer. Beans are also Vegan and Gluten-Free! A cooked bean’s weight is between 6% and 11% protein. Win-Win!

Sing it with me now, “Beans, Beans, they’re good for your heart, the more you eat, the more you….”  It’s still funny.  But you may be wondering why beans make you get gassy.  Well, plain and simply, beans contain a group of sugars called oligosaccharides, which cannot be broken down, or digested, by the human body. We don’t have the enzymes to do it.  So instead they go directly to the lower gut where the bacteria that lives there eats the sugar and produces gas as a result. This probably sounds disgustingly frightening but it’s actually normal, and the gas that accumulates down there will just eventually be released as a fart.

Now, you could avoid beans to prevent this from happening, but that’s a big bummer.  So, if bean gas is a huge problem for you, there is a solution. There’s actually a product just for this problem called Beano. It contains an enzyme, alpha galactosidase, which comes from a fungus called Aspergillus niger. This also sounds ridiculously alarming, but it’s totally our savior because it breaks down those fart-inducing oligosaccharides for us. All you need to do is put a few drops of this magic juice into some water and drink up before your bean-filled dinner. Or you can even pop a Beano tablet which will break up those big sugars into more digestible, simple ones like sucrose, glucose and fructose.

So, make yourself a big batch of chili and eat up!  It’s National Bean Day!

—
Photo Credit: nadianb / Shutterstock.com