What even are beans? Are they vegetables? Why aren't they grains?

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The State Botanical Gardens at University of Tennessee, Knoxville: utgardens.tenn...
2018 care report of a person who used raw kidney beans as an emetic: link.springer....
1980 British Medical Journal paper on lectin poisoning from raw beans: pubmed.ncbi.nl...

[@sillybilly4710]

Just gotta say, I’m very impressed by the variety of footage without using stock footage or jpegs. If you talk about a bean, you have footage you have shot personally. Appreciated effort.

[@blahza12345]

So would you say it's foodage? Getting out now!

[@ThreadBomb]

I too was impressed. I can't believe the trouble he went to to get all those beans and shoot them. But then, Adam's used to rostrum-style shooting, and all those beans probably ended up in a tasty stew, so maybe it wasn't so much trouble after all.

[@eugenetswong]

Good point! I never noticed.

[@spidicus]

@@Newciouss liver

[@linapilchard1384]

That's one of the main reasons I follow him. He had a background in media production before he turned to food and it really shows in his videos

[@dtemp132]

I’ll add that the canning process basically cooks beans, thoroughly deactivating the lectins, so pretty much any beans properly canned (shelf stable for years) can be eaten straight from the can.

[@Corrodias]

Aye. It's too bad that the canning process has a particularly deleterious effect on the quality of beans; canned peas and green beans are *good* but nowhere near as good as fresh/frozen ones. Canned meat seems to come out just fine, in contrast.

[@damnkris]

Good to know, I was WTFing pretty hard, as one of my cheat meals in college were fresh kidney beans right from the carton, sundried tomatoes, oil, and a bunch of Heinz ketchup.

[@alisaurus4224]

@@Corrodias urgh, i can’t stand canned peas and green beans; i think they taste nothing like fresh/frozen ones. Love me some canned beans, though!

[@Falcodrin]

@@alisaurus4224 Sure its not the same but sweet peas straight out of the can used to be a staple snack during my college days. Sweet flavor without HFCS.

[@garethbaus5471]

@@Corrodias I actually prefer canned green beans to fresh or frozen.

[@dr.casebolt]

The joke about not putting green beans in a dessert made me think of adzuki ("red") beans, which are commonly used in East Asian sweet dishes. In Korea they use sweet bean paste as a filling in a lot of baked and fried goodies, for example.

[@Default78334]

Mung beans too. Green bean soup is a common sweet summer treat in China.

[@sarahwatts7152]

I would love to see a follow up episode talking about beans in dessert! I've tried it and it's fantastic, but only because I was visiting a place with a Chinese bakery

[@FabbrizioPlays]

@@Default78334 Mung beans and adzuki beans are the same plant under different names. They're the same species with the only difference being the color.

[@ilikesnails8287]

@@alsaunders7805 ??

[@veganpotterthevegan]

@@FabbrizioPlays they're not the same. Their nutritional makeup is quite different, as is their flavor. They do look similar though.

[@Crowald]

My favorite part about Adam is that he doesn't just care about food or how we cook it, he cares about the human modality and behavior surrounding a given food. The history of a food's use is important to him, and it's so educational. I always learn something from his videos.

[@alamrasyidi4097]

i always liked watching educational videos and somehow he has become a gateway for me into cooking videos

[@driverjayne]

Fun fact, we had a bag of VERY old pinto beans (from my grandma's pantry) and we were able to sprout and grow them. Crazy how long seeds can hang around and still be viable

[@FutureCommentary1]

The length at which species go to survive...

[@morgan0]

yeah a while ago i had a bag of split lentils that had been sitting in the cupboard for a while, i thought something was wrong and there was a pest in there because they were starting to sprout and the sprouts were tiny white tubes but i realized what was going on they were fine still

[@yvetterobertson2770]

There is a cultivar that was found in a sealed ceramic pot in a cave in New Mexico that is thought to be about 1500 years old. Some were successfully sprouted and the result, Anasazi Beans, are widely available now.

[@zerg539]

Most seeds kept dry enough and without getting too hot keep for practically ever, they have found viable seeds in Egyptian tombs, and in permafrost.

[@loscheiner]

Life finds a way!

[@lettuce1626]

I didn't realize the danger in raw beans until this video and now I will be forever worried about cooking my beans long enough

[@echognomecal6742]

I have a garden & my favorite thing to eat raw out of it is green beans. Lovely to snack on during garden chores. I looked into this "danger" & it's possible that any sort of issue depends on the variety of bean. On that note, I've grown various sorts (vine, bush, green, wax, purple, etc...) & have never had a problem. Better safe than sorry, ofc. (Incidentally, lettuce is a pain to grow & I stick with spinach 🥬)

[@lettuce1626]

@@echognomecal6742 besides greens beans according to the video. I’m talking about red kidney or black or pinto those kinds. The lectin ones

[@echognomecal6742]

@@lettuce1626 Ah, gotcha.

[@VogeGandire]

Easy way to avoid the worry: use canned beans! They've already been cooked, so the hazard of undercooking them is gone. Plus the aquafaba they come in is great for thickening sauces.

[@MikeTaffet]

Adam: “Most beans that you’d think of grow on bushes” Me: “Yes, I too am familiar with bushes baked beans”

[@JuryDutySummons]

As an intellectual...

[@drasco61084]

i,m thinkin about thos beans,,,,,

[@kindlin]

@@drasco61084 I don't think you know how commas work....

[@Bwizz245]

@@kindlin it's part of the joke

[@treyhudson73]

Rooolllll that beautiful bean footage

[@DustyTheDog]

My grandma back home in Indiana keeps a garden each year. Some of my fondest memories with her are tending to it. She always grows green beans and sugar snap peas just for me. I am an incredibly picky eater. I'm a sensitive texture eater. Raw, fresh peas are the only form of pea that I can eat(except pea protein powder added in foods). She still keeps them for me to this day. Even though I'm now a week shy from being 27 years old, and no longer a kid. Grandmas are the best.

[@noliverk]

Looking forward to getting deep into bean lore.

[@XhumpersX]

Only if they require white wine.

[@walnutsandbeastiality866]

[Walter White showing Jesse a baggie of castor beans] _,,Castor beans. We are going to process them into ricin."_ Jesse Pinkman: _,,Rice and beans?"_ Walter White: _,,Ricin. It's an extremely effective poison. It's toxic in small doses."_ (Breaking Bad, 2008)

[@VoidUnderTheSun]

thinking about them beans

[@oswurth8774]

BEAN LORE

[@mikedaniels470]

Can’t wait to use this knowledge to finally understand the Killer Bean lore as well.

[@MahiMahi-yu5jo]

We are crazy about Hyacinth beans in Bangalore. We eat them by the kilos when in season, but they are usually cooked very well, boiled or fried. We even have a food festival dedicated to these beans!

[@JV-uq9cf]

I wish to go to Beanfest.

[@MahiMahi-yu5jo]

It's actually called Avarekai Mela. So yeah, every year, around January 15th in Bangalore, India.

[@ZayedRayhan]

right! they’re so good, i had no idea they grew them as ornamental plants here in the US. people should start eating them!!

[@bethanymcmurtrey9542]

I have anemia, hypotension and hypoglycemia, and I've found as long as I eat plenty of beans and lentils in conjunction with high V C fruits and vegetables, I can function perfectly without medication. Beans are magic, especially with a little liquid smoke.

[@IMatchoNation]

100% agreed! And personal flavor tip: most beans pair amazingly imo with many chutneys and marmalades; apricot variants are my favorite.

[@alissamedvedeva5614]

my favourite is to coat them in some blackstrap molasses, soy sauce and chili. these molasses are rich in iron too!

[@maxarendorff6521]

I you have anemia you should probably eat more red meat and not beans.

[@rossobrink8097]

@@maxarendorff6521 If it works for him, well, let him be I guess. But yeah beef liver is a great source of iron for people with anemia.

[@lucasmitchell9027]

Liquid smoke and sesame oil are 2 of the best things you can add to most savory food.

[@dominikwrzesniak4309]

This year I started growing beans in my own garden, specifically ones that you, English speakers, refer to as “common beans” or “French beans”, at least that’s what Wikipedia told me (edit: nice people below explained to me that a proper English name is “green beans”). It’s a lot of fun, the plants are pretty, the crop yield is surprisingly big, I like pretty much everything about growing them. Not to mention that the beans themselves are super tasty! Highly recommend.

[@Skystrike70]

If you want to know, I as a native English speaker have never heard anyone call them "common beans". It must not be a normal term

[@brandonesqueda4469]

@@Skystrike70 Right? I’m so confused, like pinto beans?

[@dominikwrzesniak4309]

It’s a shame your can’t put pictures in KZbin comments, it would be much easier for me to explain which variety I mean. Anyway, I grow ones that are shown in this article: en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_bean

[@brandonesqueda4469]

@@dominikwrzesniak4309 we just call them green beans haha

[@dominikwrzesniak4309]

Fair enough! Sounds good to me. A common name used in Poland could be translated as „asparagus beans”, something like this. No, they do not resemble asparagus in the slightest, but that’s just the name and I’m not here to criticise people who came up with it like, billion years ago.

[@ingwerschorle_]

we need a adam ragusea saying beans compilation

[@TetraTerezi]

@callance gaming The people have spoken

[@comicstripvo6654]

Here's a transcript for anyone who needs to script the compilation: Beans. Bean. Bean. Beans. Beans? Beans. Bean. Beans. (Peas). Beans! I'll do the rest later

[@damie9412]

Lmao

[@TheSlavChef]

67 times. In this video only.

[@cjsomething4995]

No.

[@DokterRoetker]

My wife is allergic to Soy and Peanuts and most other nuts, but she also doesn't tolerate most beans as well. This video really explained that, lots of cross overs with soy and peanuts and other beans. She is also allergic to some seeds like sesame. Maybe you can do an episode on food allergies sometimes, or multiple on each type of allergy.

[@adamplace1414]

I was just thinking how I'd love this channel to do a deep dive into dried beans. I'm getting more and more into cooking with them and I'm constantly surprised how tasty they are.

[@Svafne]

It's pretty much impossible to find a tastier, healthier and cheaper food than dried beans! :)

[@maia2387]

You should check for brazilian recipes, we are absolutely crazy about beans here

[@giannis5250]

check out greek lentil soup for a quintessential Greek dish that's also extremely easy

[@limiv5272]

@@maia2387 Could you write down some bean related dishes I could look up a recipe for, preferably ones that still work after removing all hot ingredients?

[@temptemp4174]

Brrrrrraaaaàaaaaapppppphhhhttttttt

[@alessandramacedo18]

As a Brazilian, I've always eaten multiple common beans varieties as part of lunch everyday, but since I've become a vegan, my bean game skyrocketed. I've discovered chickpeas, tvp and different types of lentils and how much flavor you can infuse in them through aromatics, spices, sauces and fats with receipes like feijoada, dhaal, lentil curry, chana massala, chilli beans, chickpea strogonof, tvp stews, baião de dois... You can use the flower for pancakes of all sorts. You can make patties (falafel, acarajé and other things like that), nuggets, soups, purees (homus!), roasted snacks... Soy specifically gives us tofu, tempeh, soy milk, textured vegetable protein, things that you can turn into so many other stuff. IT'S BEANS! I CAN'T IMAGINE A MORE BEAUTIFUL THING! When I tried it with spices, EVERYTHING CHANGED🤩

[@elizabethpemberton8445]

Beans and bean protein products rule! And they are just cool. Finding new dried beans in natural foods stores, etc., is just fun. I may sound like I’m five, but I’m just an old vegetarian.

[@curtisthomas2670]

Chickpea tofu

[@cdluggage]

But thats great for women too much soy will cause you to sprout a manbun. Not great if your a man, believe we have seen the disease spreading through america. Hopefully less prominant down in brazil but 🤷🏼‍♂️ hard to say, with guys wear speedos almost can imagine manbuns and scrunchies are a huge part of life there now too. Its a shame really, god bless let women be women and men be men.

[@pockster2854]

Underrated comment ^^

[@oceanman7549]

"This is where beans come from" *Says the bean, disguised as a man* Sidenote: Adam's shirt sleeves are getting tighter each episode, and I for one am enjoying the journey.

[@veganpotterthevegan]

🍌💦

[@oceanman7549]

@Raj Mahal That’s Mama Luigi to you Mario

[@gaetondavis3741]

⁰

[@fozzymandias]

ZADDY

[@WanderTheNomad]

They say you are what you eat

[@michaelnelson2976]

This is coming RIGHT on time right after a bad situation I had while trying to cook raw beans for the first time ever. This is really dang needed

[@ThreadBomb]

Basically, more cooking time = better beans.

[@IndecisionTelevision]

Ah, Adam. Always answering the questions I didn't even know I was asking

[@orionbukantis6470]

What a great intro to beans! I've been getting into beans lately, and I just love them. They're tasty, super inexpensive, easy to cook (if a little time consuming), environmentally friendly, and have a nice balance of carbs, protein, and fiber.

[@TasteOfButterflies]

If you cook a lot of beans, I recommend using a pressure cooker of some kind. Makes it a lot less time consuming.

[@BaDazai]

@@TasteOfButterflies soaking the beans over night also reduces the cook time significantly. :)

[@c-5921]

I'm pretty sure chronically undercooking beans is what triggered my diverticulitis. I was cooking them for at least an hour, but the temperature was probably not high enough. I've been using canned beans since and I haven't had a problem

[@evanchristensen609]

Love this! In my university classes we talk about the difference between botanical classification and cultural use and production. Super interesting a tomato is culturally referred to as a vegetable and nutritionally considered a vegetable too when it is a fruit botanically.

[@hiraya5296]

i came across this line of thinking from youtube, learned it from a channel called innuendo studios. sometimes we really are just arguing past each others' definitions. kzbin.info/www/bejne/jp7ben5vpZWGhK8

[@Just_Sara]

And is watermelon a berry? Is squash a berry?? Is cucumber a squash???

[@jaminwaite3867]

Eggplant is a berry. Banana is a berry.

[@bigmilk13_]

I am entranced by your videos, the production quality is just off the charts. Your scripts are clear and concise, and you have a way of making the audience ask a particular question right before you answer it. Always keeps my full attention, and I always learn something new and fun. Top shelf stuff right here. Also I made sure to RSVP for I AM BEANS: GAZE UPON ME AND DESPAIR

[@michaelreece2383]

Hey Adam, live all your videos especially the explainers like this. Ever considered a what is mustard? It's flavour intrigues me. Feels like such a unique condiment.

[@Ancyker]

It's a seed paste. Made from mustard seed, to be precise. Not that exciting of an answer, I know, but it is the answer.

[@williammeek4078]

@@Ancyker in vinegar. And yellow mustard typically has turmeric and paprika.

[@eugenetswong]

Off topic suggestion: mix 4 parts ketchup, 3 parts soy sauce, 1 part mustard, and 1 part mild chilli sauce. It is surprisingly delicious. I made this to make use of extra packets, and was pleasantly surprised at how enticing it was.

[@colleen4097]

Mustard isn't just a delicious condiment, wild mustard is the ancestor of the plants that produce brassica vegies (broccoli, cabbage, brussels sprouts, kale etc) as well as canola oil.

[@Falcodrin]

@@Ancyker Making your own is actually pretty fun. You can pick the grind you like and even just separate out some whole seeds to add back in after you grind for a caviar pop.

[@SiqueScarface]

Interestingly, in French, légumes means all vegetables. Only légumes secs (dry legumes) are legumes in the English meaning of the word. In German, there is a difference between Obst (fruits as food) and Früchten (fruits as seed apparatus of a plant). Legumes in German are Hülsenfrüchte (shell fruits). Thus many linguistical problems in English are solved in other languages.

[@smellslikegrapes7813]

Corn is a fruit, more specifically a caryopsis. You could consider it a seed but they are almost berries but they can't be because they have only one seed per fleshy fruit so it's closer to a stone fruit but no stone so they can't be, they are a type of fruit in which the seed coat is tightly fused with the pericarp (that's the fleshy bit, like the part of a peach that you eat). Have a beautiful day All the tree sisters are fruits 💛❤️🖤🤍

[@Szaam]

As a vegan who pretty much lives off beans, I listened to this like it was a sermon at church.

[@wouldyoureturntomonke2452]

@Richard Cranium come one, that's their standard operational procedure. "I'm a veeegaaan"

[@NoiseDay]

So you doodled on a pamphlet and then fell asleep out of boredom?

[@morkallearns781]

How are your farts

[@biteme9486]

Where does your B12 come from?

[@Szaam]

@Bite Me I take a supplement first thing each morning, and throughout the day I make sure to consume fortified foods (nutritional yeast, Marmite and plant milk are my main sources).

[@therocknrollmillennial535]

On top of the informative nature of this video, I appreciate the fact that the pacing (to me) feels like a lost Mitch Hedberg special.

[@aragusea]

whoa, big compliment! Big mitch fan.

[@hiraya5296]

"i like beans. beans are great when you're hungry and you want 2000 of something." -adam hedberg

[@sherrybirchall8677]

@@hiraya5296 Adam Hedburg? Oh, I got it when I wrote it out. ... I just had cataract surgery on my right eye, and I'm a little out of it.

[@davidcole1463]

I haven’t seen a video you have made where I have not learned something and mostly learned a whole lot! Thank you for your posts! Keep on as I will keep watching.

[@ryla22]

I've eaten a completely unreasonable amount of green beans from my grandma's garden. I've never gotten sick from it. Like 20+ and I was like 6. Green beans are safe.

[@kaitlyn__L]

I ate whole harvests of runner beans from my grandma’s garden raw at that age too lol (I don’t know if they’re just more common in the UK than green beans. They taste pretty similar though. And the pods look similar but way bigger.)

[@grantflippin7808]

@@kaitlyn__L green is just a stage of development when common beans and runner beans have just started developing seeds.

[@kaitlyn__L]

@@grantflippin7808 oh, so what Americans call green beans could have just been the juvenile form of the runner beans I was eating? That’s interesting!

[@skurblord3401]

Green beans and sweet peas are perfectly safe to eat raw and in significant amount.

[@b.a.erlebacher1139]

@@kaitlyn__L Runner beans, usually with the brilliant scarlet flowers, are closely related to common beans but a different species. They originate from high elevations in Central America, where the climate is cool and humid, so do better in the UK than common beans, also known as French beans or haricot beans in the UK.

[@s.n.8128]

Dude your content is actually just great. You hit that very fine border of consumergrade chemistry while still talking about ordinary food. Its awesome.

[@Beryllahawk]

"Bean Bellybutton" is going to be a character name at SOME point in my writing now. Also, this explains why some Brits eat beans for breakfast. Though I'm still really confused about broad beans...I've read that they were THE staple bean for hundreds of years in Europe but nowadays it's like they just vanished. I'm told they're called fava beans now, but I can't find those in the grocery store either. Weird, no? Sadly - I won't be exploring bean dishes anymore, because my husband is on a severely restricted diet due to being on dialysis. Beans - lentils, split peas, kidney beans, basically nearly every sort - are on his list of "absolutely NEVER eat these." I'm gonna be diving into a bit more research, now that I've seen this. Because - he IS allowed to have green beans. And peanuts! (though not real nuts.) This diet is crazy, and I want to chase down just what it is with the nutrition from a green bean that makes it OK for a guy with kidney problems. Very, very interesting video, and thank you!

[@PhosphorAlchemist]

My understanding is that the kidney-damaging phytochemicals develop as the seeds mature, so the young whole pod of a green bean doesn't have them. As Adam says, though, the final amounts in dry beans vary greatly by varietal. I'm surprised that the diet is "no dried/seed beans" without exception, though I suppose logistically that is easier for patient compliance than having to specify "this cultivar only."

[@PhosphorAlchemist]

Broad beans are common seasonally in European cooking and are a staple in the cuisines of the Levant and Asia. In the US, I mainly see them in specialty grocers, not in supermarkets -- the lima bean is king here. I also think that The Silence of the Lambs had a negative impact on the poor innocent fava bean's reputation, when it already had a small market. Among many uses, mature broad beans are fried and seasoned as a snack in East and Southeast Asia, like we might use popcorn or potato chips. They have a satisfying crunch, and they really hit the spot for a crunchy-salty craving.

[@flamingpi2245]

@@PhosphorAlchemist Really? I don’t think silence of the lambs has done much to impact the reputation of Chianti wine

[@onodera3964]

Broad beans have tough skins that you have to remove after boiling. When common beans became available, Europeans gladly switched to them, like they switched to potatoes from turnips and rutabagas.

[@orlando5849]

@@onodera3964 Soaking the dried broad beans for 24 hours will also allow one to easily remove the tough skin. Southern Italian, Spanish and Middle Eastern cuisines have many delicious dishes based on dried fava beans, all part of what is referred to as the ‘ cucina povera’ .

[@JohnMoseley]

Warning: you don't just have to cook the beans properly, it's pretty much essential to soak them first unless you're using a pressure cooker. I know this to my cost. Back in my twenties, I already knew most beans needed soaking but had the idea that mung beans were more like lentils and didn't, so I cooked a load up, ate them and then had severe stomach cramps for a whole weekend. Thank god I didn't invite anyone else to the mung bean meal. It didn't end there. Presumably because the mung bean disaster had somehow weakened my digestive system, a month or two later it became impossible for me to digest anything with beans in it, even breads containing soya flours. I'd eat whatever it was and very shortly afterwards I'd have a really nasty tasting burp and it would all come out again, barely digested, either in very clear, runny diaorrhea or vomiting. The only way to keep anything down was to eat stodge of the sort I'd previously avoided: white bread/pasta, and cheese. Eventually I saw a doctor about this and he told me sourly that he had people coming to see him who were seriously ill, indicating he didn't need his time wasted by malingering neurotics like me, so I was left to my own devices. Fortunately, a little later I heard that vitamin C was a digestive aid, so I reversed course on one of my strategies: I'd not been eating oranges because I thought they might be too acidic. Now I tried eating a few and immediately felt it had made a difference. I ate a bean-based veggie sausage and was OK. For at least a year after that, to be sure, I ate lots of oranges every day. The problem has never come back and thank god because it was horrible.

[@wigglytuffgaming]

I have been eating beans without soaking for 25 yrs. Never even heard of this. People are crazy.

[@JohnMoseley]

​@@wigglytuffgaming 🙄With all due respect, fuck off. Just because you were lucky enough not to have this happen to you it doesn't mean everyone it does happen to is 'crazy.' Dry beans contain oligosaccharides, which can't be fully digested. Soaking reduces them. Some diet pills have even contained powdered beans to make food run through people without being digested, which really is crazy, but shows this is a real thing.

[@thegoodwitchluzura]

You’re doctor was right, you are a malingering neurotic. You really don’t need to soak beans, so you probably ate something earlier in the day that gave you food poisoning.

[@Smokey.Tackle]

I love bean soup. I make a very simple soup with pinto beans, great northern bean, diced ham and Knorr chicken broth. I throw it all in my pressure cooker for a little over a hour and that’s it. Cheap, easy, and tasty. I like to eat it with cornbread on the side. Actually I'm kind of surprised I've never seen Adam come up with a pressure cooker recipe.

[@OrWhatWeHave]

He's said on his podcast that bean recipes don't get views. I imagine a bean slow cooker recipe would be even worse. Plus, he's not really an appliance guy so I'm not sure a slow cooker is his style...

[@Just_Sara]

I'm learning that he tends to be sort of minimalist, and maybe it's just how he is, or maybe it's so that more viewers can make what he does. Many people do not have pressure cookers, myself included.

[@zenmanphd]

Oh man, just EVERY question answered flawlessly!

[@jerdasaurusrex557]

Here in asia we boil down mung beans or azuki beans into thick porridges and serve them as dessert.

[@nunya___]

Wow, I have never heard a more concise, information packed, beautifully and thoughtfully narrated video....ever.

[@munjee2]

I had never heard of grains and vegetables being considered different things before watching this channel

[@ForageGardener]

Grains are seeds fron grass. Fruits are the fruiting body of a plant whicy contains the seeds (tomato, apple, pea pods), vegetables are the "vegetative" growth of a plant, anything thats not a fruit or seed/nut, so roots, stems, leaves, and flowers. Figs are in fact a vegetable, an unbloomed flower. Nuts are seeds from trees. When entering the cullinary world, people start to misidentify ingredients based on their kitchen uses, calling tomatoes and corn vegetables, calling fig a fruit, calling peanuts a nut, and calling various non-grass seeds "grains".

[@garethbaus5471]

Part of the distinction probably has to do with the USDA guidelines which usually put grains in their own category. The current USDA is actually put beans in several categories simultaneously because they are moderately nutritionally dense while still having a decently high fiber and caloric content.

[@kamakanaola808]

This guy reminds me of Alton Brown, super informative and engaging. Keep it up!

[@alsaunders7805]

I know you covered it before on a previous video on whether soaking was necessary for dry beans. I do consider it necessary but I do it differently from most. I soak them long enough that fermentation actually helps neutralize lectiins, flatulence causing fiber, phytates, or something. I soak them at room temperature until I get some bubbles, usually about 24 hours. Then I change the water and put them in the fridge. I change the water every 24-48 hours for a week to 10 days then cook them normally in fresh water or stock. They come out awesome with usually no flatulence or other digestive issues. Most people would say that's too much work but I am sensitive to many plant foods so it is worth it to me. 🤓🍻

[@lordrindfleisch1584]

Yes, but image all the dominance you could show with bean induced gas.

[@PhosphorAlchemist]

@@lordrindfleisch1584 Having done this with The Great Fava Bean Incident, I advise caution. Yes, it can work! But choose your beans/ammunition carefully, or your weapon can become too powerful and attack indiscriminately. It's hard to look badass when you can barely stand up from gas pain. Lmao.

[@PhosphorAlchemist]

I usually soak beans on the counter for 24-36 hours changing water once with good results. Friends express delight that my beans don't make them (or me) gassy. I'd completely forget about them if I added a week in the fridge. Glad you have a process that works for you! I might have to try this if I tackle fava beans again, though. (See other comment in thread about The Great Fava Bean Incident... disastrous!)

[@alsaunders7805]

@@PhosphorAlchemist I actually learned my fermentation trick by accident. I had always left mine soaking on the counter overnight for rinsing and cooking the next day. Something came up and I forgot about them for a few days. They were bubbling away like a sourdough starter when I remembered. I rinsed them off and smelled them and surprisingly they smelled fine. I cooked them as an experiment and everyone loved them and I suffered no gastric distress of any kind. That was a surprise as I'm sensitive to many plant foods including beans usually. Been experimenting with the process ever since. And yes, I'm a bit of a mad scientist in the kitchen. 🤓🍻

[@b.a.erlebacher1139]

Fermenting beans is an interesting idea. I'll have to try that. Soaking beans for an extra day or two with a few water changes is a good way to prevent flatulence. Beans contain some odd sugars that we can't digest but our intestinal bacteria can, producing gas. Long soaking with water changes leaches out those sugars, so the gas bacteria have nothing to work with. I usually soak a lot of beans or chickpeas at a time, then cook them in a stainless steel bowl in my pressure cooker. About 3 cups of dry beans gives me 5-6 2 cup or half liter containers (cottage cheese cartons) which I freeze. I only have to do this a few times a year, so the extra soaking and water changes aren't a hassle. The frozen cooked beans are as convenient as canned ones, much cheaper and dry beans are a lot lighter than canned beans to lug home.

[@plasmaoc]

Im not kidding, Adam is single-handedly the smoothest youtuber when it comes to advertising sponsor products.

[@jhonbus]

If you want to slow-cook beans like kidney beans, use canned ones, since they've already been cooked at high temperature during the canning process :)

[@drewrobinson9120]

Love UT's Botanical Garden and stop in every time I am in Knoxville.

[@sebastiaodecamposalves]

Here in Portugal we have a pastry with a white bean filling called 'Pastel de Feijão'. It's very wide spread and tastes pretty good.

[@kurtoogle4576]

I'm appreciating these veg/fruit classification videos! Thanks, Adam!

[@magnusbruce4051]

I genuinely look forward to Mondays because I know Adam is putting up a science-y video where I learn something new. I knew that some beans weren't OK to eat raw, but I've eaten raw peas from my parents' garden literally seconds after it was taken from the plant and they're the best tasting peas I've ever had. I didn't know they were also a bit poisonous.

[@Corrodias]

It *seems* that the effects are limited to indigestion, much like what happens when you eat any other, indigestible protein, so as long as you didn't experience any noticeable effects, it was presumably fine.

[@Just_Sara]

Maybe this is one of the kinds of beans you don't have to worry about. I mean, people eat snap peas raw all the time. I can eat an entire bag in one sitting, and nothing bad has happened to me yet.

[@mellissadalby1402]

(1) I am really digging this video, (2) I appreciate the questions being asked in it as much as the data provided.

[@lucasmitchell9027]

I absolutely love beans, but any significant amount of fiber completely destroys me stomach and ruins the rest of my day, so I try to either avoid them or only eat them at dinner. Also, they belong on chilli, and I'll die on that hill.

[@brokenglassshimmerlikestar3407]

If you soak them for a long time and then cook them for very long I find that the digestion improves. Granted that's still a lot of work and gas/electricity spent on beans

[@Mephitinae]

Beans have lectins. These are chemicals that plants use to deter animals, by attacking the lining of their bowel. Humans eat them anyway, because... well, they are cheap to produce.

[@regd809]

Try getting the split peas and beans as they have had the particularly fibrous outer skin removed.

[@Corrodias]

That's so strange, though. Dietary fiber is supposed to be good for you. But I can hypothesize a cause, a chronic lack of fiber in your diet, otherwise. Either your GI tract itself is just not accustomed to it, or, what I think is more likely, your gut flora are unbalanced and over-feed on the fiber. Just a hypothesis, though, and there's not much you could do about it, anyway, not until therapeutic fecal transplant pills are available for more general use than treating clostridium difficile infestations.

[@Gigugan]

“Oh you’re a fan of beans huh? Name every bean.” Adam:

[@TheSlavChef]

Beans are love, beans are life! This is the answer I need :D

[@UltimateDelivery]

All these questions about being are giving me a full-on existential crisis. I'm not complaining. This is amazing content.

[@AnimeshPathak]

Thanks for the great deep dive into beans! Quick note from an Indian perspective: what we in America (and in France) call "lentils" is called "Masoor daal" in India. All other pulses are also called "daal" :-)

[@smoekee]

I am so psyched about the bean series.

[@IMatchoNation]

The future of human diet is centered around grains, tubers, alliums and legumes and that's just fine by me

[@DDoubleEDouble]

YES! There’s so many types and you can pretty much make them into anything!

[@maxarendorff6521]

A truly dystopian vision.

[@rainyclockuno3135]

that just sounds like a return to form

[@Ithirahad]

So like, what we've been eating the whole time? Rice/rye/corn/wheat, potato (and hopefully the rest of the world starts to pick up the good ol' white yam to boot), onions and garlic, and beans. Throw in some chunks of lab-grown meat and this just sounds like the makings of a good burrito.

[@fiatlux8828]

Shit only first-worlders say. We've *never* stopped eating these things.

[@sr7312]

My older daughter asked me this very question a few days ago. So I called her into the room to watch the video with me. Very good.

[@outlawscar3328]

I feel thoroughly educated on the subject of beans. I don't know why I needed this, but it feels better knowing. Thank you, Adam, for consistently good content.

[@tommunyon2874]

I was enthralled with the Orchid Trees in Guam. They resemble a tree form of the sweet pea, only their blossoms are orchid sized. Where I grew up the altitude meant that water boiled at about 14°F lower than at sea level, yet frijoles (pinto beans) were a major food item. I would guess they got boiled enough, ad it took longer to get them tender.

[@worawatli8952]

Raw green bean is very normal where I live, it is everywhere as side dish vegetable in Thai food. Been eating them often, no problem.

[@harshalshah4685]

Adam you've got to try "ponk" it's a dish from Gujarat made from green sorghum seeds that have been steamed for a few minutes. Add to it a few spoonfuls of spicy sev (fried gram flour noodles) and a spritz of lemon juice. The as you chew the sorghum grains, they have a caviar like pop with a pleasant grassy sweetness. You should be able to find some at good Indian grocery in the frozen aisle for a heat-n-eat package.

[@juliakus7958]

that sounds so good - veggie caviar!

[@mikeyaustin7526]

Damn Adam, almost at 2m. Congratulations!! I'm excited for you!

[@danak9594]

Try a vegan borscht. My version is: cooked white beans, some cabbage, a bit of beet, tomatos or tomatoe sauce, onion. Add each vegatable to the pot according to the time it takes to cook ( the cabbage last). I cook white beans for two hours at least without stirring or else it'll burn in the bottom. After a 24 hour soak in water of course, half of ithe time n the fridge, depending on room temprature and change the water at least once. I love this soup it tastes great. You can also add a bit of lemon juice to your plate. Dill can also be a good addition.

[@paulasimson4939]

That sounds delicious!

[@arnoldszwarzenegger6832]

Please dont call that borscht, and also, the way to make traditional borchst vegan is to just use vegetable stock and not chicken one, every other ingridient in a borscht is a vegan product.

[@danak9594]

@@arnoldszwarzenegger6832 I aplogize. I actually meant that the tranditional borchst was the inspiration for this soup. I actually learned it from an ukrainian woman who cooks traditional ukrainian food and is a very good cook. By the way I forgot to state two more ingredients which are carrots and vegetable oil of your choice.

[@chantalhamilton2374]

That opening montage of area of popular bean use vs area of origin...INSANE

[@koji8123]

Hey Adam, this is a super personal question, but I know you’ve said somewhere that you used to be a professor or journalism, but practically all your content is food based, which I love and it’s what keeps me subscribed. Before being a professor did you go for food sciences in college or something? Gastronomy classes? Just curious. Love your content as always.

[@pardn]

I think he explains his background in his Mariah Carey vid. It's been awhile so I'm not sure

[@nahometesfay1112]

@@pardn He did!

[@nahometesfay1112]

He originally went to school for music, then switched to radio/journalism. I don't believe he has any academic or professional experience in cooking

[@davidthedeaf]

Thank you, now i know why the harder beans i used to make chili made me sick, because it wasn’t cooked long enough in water even after soaking. It sure takes a long time

[@LaineyBug2020]

I've never seen a bag of mixed beans like that, it looks delicious!

[@sp3ctum]

Agreed! I wonder if they cook nicely together too. What I mean is some beans cook a very short time and then either burst and dissolve into the cooking water, while some take a long time to cook (like soy and chickpeas)

[@PGproductionsHD]

I would have loved if you got into how the nutritional values of beans vary from fresh to dry, the difference is outstanding!

[@AminalCreacher]

question: are beans the best food? i’ve begun thinking that maybe beans are the best food. what does science have to say about the bestness of beans?

[@morgan0]

a couple months ago i somehow ended up on the wikipedia page for staple foods, and there was a table for macro and micro nutrients, and overall soybeans (because that’s the major bean staple food) were the clear winner. did they win every nutrient? no, but they won the most by a lot. edit: also soybeans soaked from dry and simmered taste amazing, kinda like a nutty pasta taste. 11/10 highly recommend, currently my favorite bean.

[@k.3004]

@@morgan0 you can make tofu, soy bean curd, miso, sauce 😁

[@partlycurrent]

I guess beans next to alcohol are among the very few things that all of humanity was able to agree on, so very best?

[@Brandon_Nelson92]

@@morgan0 soybeans are good in moderation, but contain a lot of phyto-estrogen. Some types of beans, as well as sweet potatoes, also contain a smaller amount of phyto-estrogen as well. I used to consume A LOT of soybeans and soy milk when I was 12-15 years old. I had not hit puberty yet. I thought the protein and nutrients would help me grow. As soon as I found out about phyto-estrogen, I completely stopped eating anything with soy. I hit puberty full-force the following week. I grew 7-8 inches taller and my voice dropped more than an octave in the span of only 3 months. My bones hurt from growing so fast. I've seen kids have dramatic growth spurts, but mine was drastic, like it had been held back for a while. I'm pretty certain I delayed puberty with my dietary choices. I ate a lot of soy back then. I'm almost 30 now and eat soybeans and food with soy occasionally. It is actually healthy in moderation. I would recommend only small, very occasional amounts of soy for pre-teens and teenagers, though.

[@festerofest4374]

@@morgan0 Don't they help grow titties on men? Estrogen? I'm not a nutritional science person... so not sure how legit the warning are!

[@Lesyeuxouverts]

this rocked my socks off. great learning value, I may even come back to watch it every now and then. beans are so powerful in a diet.

[@vp21ct]

Sadly, I myself am allergic to most Common Beans, with the strange exception of green beans. I believe it's because I'm strictly allergic to the mature common bean, but regardless, it limits my options for some of my favorite foods. Green Bean chilli is not bad, though.

[@jamescanjuggle]

im curious, are you effected by pea protein being used in foods?

[@oxybrightdark8765]

I'm also curious if youre allergic to peanuts.

[@vp21ct]

Stuff that uses common bean protein will cause a reaction. Peas and non common beans are fine. Peanuts are fine. It's weird.

[@limiv5272]

@@vp21ct Allergies are pretty random, at least you know what you're allergic to

[@karlhastings8342]

Have a allergy like yours. Can not eat common beans or green beans, no problem with peanuts or peas. Took me years to figure out what the problem was. Severe allergic reaction, scared the hell out of me.

[@robertgrey1377]

Harvested beans this morning with some youth I work with over the summer, gonna watch your video as a follow up. The length, content, and topics themselves are perfect for young people to watch and discuss, or anybody really. Also, the farm I work at loves growing purple hyacinth and scarlet runners along our fence line. People got mad last year that we didn’t explicitly tell folks they were inedible.

[@pdfbanana]

oh wow, good to know about uncooked kidneys & other beans. i'm a grazer and have definitely eaten 2-3 beans after soaking but before cooking, just for the heck of it. don't remember any nausea, but may have have had a mild case and blamed it on something else

[@RebelRhiannon]

I also do this!

[@Corrodias]

Yeah, I'm shocked that I had never heard before that raw and undercooked beans (depending on the species/cultivar) can be poisonous! This is important information! Of course, I still love certain beans and will gladly have them, cooked.

[@nataliajimenez1870]

My worst case of abdominal pain came after eating too much lentil stew. And the lentils were fully cooked and I'm a lifelong bean eater. But I now respect them and don't eat huge quantities of them

[@philomelodia]

Being central American, my favorite bean is the small red bean. They are fantastic when you season them with garlic and onions. Once cooked, you can fry them, mash them and serve them with salty white cheese and sour cream wrapped in corn tortillas. Simple and delicious!

[@purplealice]

I have often made Boston baked beans according to my great-grandmother's recipe. It calls for "navy beans" or "pea beans", but the best I can find at the grocery store are "soldier beans". The reason Boston baked beans got so popular is because they started cooking them on Saturday and left them in the oven overnight, so they didn' have to cook on Sunday (the early Protestant New Englanders - my ancestors - obeyed the Biblical rules as strictly as Orthodox Jews.) Meanwhile, I have learned to enjoy tofu in various forms. And I'm a big fan of peanuts (legumes that poke their stems underground to mature). Since I'm avoiding as many fats as possible since my gall bladder surgery, I can't make my favorite "vaguely Chinese-style Chicken Stir-Fry with Peanut Butter (one time I used too much peanut butter and gave myself a gall bladder attack) But peanuts are really nutritious - lots of protein and B vitamins and healthful fatty acids, and plenty of fiber. And peanut butter is used in a mixture called PlumPPnut, given to children in Africa who are suffering from protein deficiency.

[@alsaunders7805]

Have you tried using coconut oil for cooking. The MCTs it is primarily composed of are among the few fats that don't require bile(which is stored in the gallbladder) to be absorbed. They are directly absorbed in the intestines and sent to the liver to be converted to ketones. Being on a low(er) carb diet should make the process more effective. 🤓🍻

[@purplealice]

@@alsaunders7805 What I"m eating is mostly cchicken or tofu, stir-fried in only 2 teaspoons of oi (stirring like crazy), and served on rice. Or steamed and served with rice. I don't like how coconut oil makes my kitchen smell like coconut (which I dislike intensely). I use Chinese sesame oil, or else plain canola oil. At least the steamed things don't cause me distress, and I just ate some slices of plain boiled chicken for dinner last night.

[@sp3ctum]

A great benefit of beans is that you can get pretty glass jars and put all your favorite beans in them. They will make your kitchen look lively and lovely.

[@iam_soumya]

1:03 the Indian beans are called as sim in native India. We cut the pods including beans in small shape and fry them with little cumin powder and salt. It taste heavenly with Indian light daal and rice.

[@joburgerer4127]

Adam, I feel like you made this episode just for me. I am a veggie gardener and home cook. My favourite thing to grow and eat is BEANS. I have been growing and collecting beans since I was a child. They are like gems to me. Last summer I harvested 8 types of heirloom bean varieties, including purple hyacinth. In my collection is about 15 types, mostly heirloom kinds of African and South American beans. Thank you so much for your well-researched content. Lots of love from Johannesburg, South Africa

[@johnathantaylor5913]

Baked beans in tomato sauce (popular in the UK) aren't really viewed as vegetables... but the interesting thing is: I'm not too sure what we think of them as. A side dish? They rarely make up the 'main' carbohydrate, nor the 'main' protein. Things can get confusing when you question something so commonplace in your culture.

[@brokenglassshimmerlikestar3407]

So when they're on toast... can that be considered an open face sandwich?

[@Froge4291]

@@brokenglassshimmerlikestar3407 yes, whatever you put bread that is of reasonable consistency is considered a sandwich.

[@OriginalScarah]

The fact at the very end was worth watching all the way through

[@praetorfenix69]

Been looking forward to this one since you mentioned it on the podcast. I would love for you to do an episode on soybeans in particular. There's a lot of fear and backlash against soy these days and it'd be good to see what the science actually says about the benefits and health risks.

[@XYZAidan]

You've bean looking forward to it?

[@Svafne]

tldr: vegetable hormones(phyto estrogen in this case) are not the same as animal hormones.

[@ayylmao.mp3]

a soybean episode would be very interesting as they are used in so many ways with completely different end products!

[@Svafne]

@@ayylmao.mp3 soybeans own! :D

[@wwiiinplastic4712]

I used to hull string beans for my grandmother growing up and I would eat several as I went through the bowlful. I liked the 'green' taste of the raw beans. I don't recall any serious effects from doing so. I still eat an occasional string bean raw and snow peas as well.

[@faithkerns1626]

thanks for telling me raw kidney bean is poison, I have definitely eaten a few now and then :(

[@kylemathew205]

This is unimaginably more interesting then I thought

[@Toxicity1987]

Vegetable is a pure culinary term, not an botanical one. I mean edible Mushrooms are often categorized as vegetables and they aren't even plants. The definition of the term is actually very mushy, technically every thing that we eat (or drink) that isn't part of an Animal could be defined as a vegetable.

[@superfluidity]

Depends on context but I think it has to be from a plant, or at least a living thing. Salt is not a vegetable. Black pepper is also not a vegetable although it's harder to work out why. Mushrooms are questionable. I probably would think of nori as a vegetable even though it's not a plant in the strict sense. I think dessert fruits are generally excluded too, otherwise there'd be no sense in saying "fruits and vegetables".

[@Toxicity1987]

@@superfluidity Yeah its more in the common tongue than anything. I mean most commonly we use it to describe Non Animal Products (with some exceptions like spices, but not all of them. Some are Vegetables like Paprika) that we uses in our typical western dishes that we eat for a meal. But if we get non western meals into the mix, its gets really really hard, a Thai Curry for example often contains sweet fruits like Pineapple and Bananas. So technically they are Vegetables as well.

[@bgranz99]

Thank you for your bean knowledge! It's bean a pleasure!

[@pjschmid2251]

Darn I was hoping for information on how to avoid the horrible gastrointestinal distress of the gas from beans. I love beans but they do not love me.

[@XYZAidan]

Pop some Beano, swallow one before your first bite and then chew one midway through your meal.

[@MrDreadhead97]

A very interesting deep dive into different cultivars of one species could be 'brassica oleracea' and it's many many forms.

[@rustyshackleford9888]

Heartily agree. I'm honestly surprised Adam hasn't done a video on that yet...it is definitely right up his alley.

[@Serenity_Dee]

For those of you wondering about beans in the slow cooker: canned beans are cooked before canning. But don't take chances even with dried beans.

[@DrakonIL]

I thought it was specifically kidney beans that were risky to slow cook? I've done pintos and blacks and they work just fine; I do them on high, though.

[@davidkantor7978]

You mentioned the Kentucky Coffee tree. There are a few other trees and perennial plants that are legumes: locust tree, redbud, wisteria, to name a few. See the Wikipedia article on Fabaceae.

[@artemissharp1227]

Adam! I loved this video, and I hope this isn’t overly dramatic, but I would’ve loved a trigger warning on the eating disorder mention later on when discussing the lectin issues. Can’t wait to learn more about beans, love your videos!

[@fhey7903]

"Beans are great we should all eat more beans." *pouring an entire bag of Starburst jellybeans into my mouth* Amen brother

[@MedalionDS9]

Beans beans the musical fruit The more ya eat the more ya toot

[@johndanskine2209]

Beans, beans, they're good for your heart the more you eat the more you fart!

[@elijahbrown9738]

The more you toot The better you feel So eat your beans with every meal!

[@I-Am-L]

There are so many things to learn in this world, it is very honorable of you to organize and relay information to us for free. I hope you understand the appreciation we have.

[@joakimboulanger4490]

I'd take a whole video of you talking about why we classify things as fruits or légumes and the whole "tomato is a fruit" things. And also, how to eat a lot of beans without farting all the time

[@HotelPapa100]

How botanists think about things is very different to how chefs do. Don't get me started on the whole pedantic "what is a berry" argument. Prescriptivists use a weird definition used in botany and force it on the general populace, who never used that definition in general speech.

[@clementdenis4212]

Basically legumes is a culinary category while fruit is both a culinary and a botanical category. Hence the confusion.

[@b.a.erlebacher1139]

@@clementdenis4212 It's even worse. From your name I think you may be Francophone. The French word legumes would translate to vegetables in English, while the English word legumes refers to beans, peas and lentils of all kinds, also called pulses. But basically, in English, botanists and everyone else use the same word different ways, so we should just leave the botanists to it, and relax.

[@b.a.erlebacher1139]

Joakim, beans contain some odd sugars that we can't digest, so they get passed along to our gut bacteria which can digest them and produce gas in the process. If you soak beans for a day or two, with several water changes, you will leach out those sugars and greatly reduce the flatulence.

[@luispinotti]

Hello, Adam...I am an agronbomist from Brazil...a technicality to think about: all plant species are "vegetables"...all of them vegetate... of course, in culinary terms, things are different...nevertheless, huge fan of your channel... journalistic precision on gastronomy...all the best!

[@magichourai]

Video idea: What's the effect of eating burned food on health and nutrition?

[@drasco61084]

And he should have an aside about the whole "microwaves change the molecular structure of your food" stuff in the video about burned food. Cooking kinda does that in general regardless of whether it's in a microwave oven or over an open fire, and we tend to find much of that desirable. It's just a part of cooking.

[@HotelPapa100]

@@drasco61084 The way microwaving affects the chemistry of food is just much less favorable to developing compounds that taste good. Maillard reactions are A Good Thing (TM) in that regard. And they rely on temperatures above the boiling point, that just aren't present when you heat foodstuffs by exciting their water molecules.

[@davida1hiwaaynet]

Very cool! I enjoy a large variety of different beans on my international work trips. They seem to always agree with me and are a good protein alternative to unknown meats I might not want to eat overseas. When I see a variety of unknown foods and one has beans, I think - Oh yeah, getting a big serving of that. Love your photos and images, too. Very artistic.

[@Dayvit78]

I always wondered how Anderson's Split Pea Soup was made :) I thought they cut each one individually. Edit: "Fresh frozen" Gordon Ramsay would have a field day if you said that to his face!

[@bobbun9630]

I'm going to start using the term "fresh canned", I think. Actually, I'm a big fan of highly processed food that is "factory fresh"!

[@eziowayne]

I didn’t even know I had this question before you asked it! Keep up the amazing work dude!

[@AndrewFullerton]

I don't think I've properly boiled dried kidney beans a single time and I've never noticed a side effect, so I have a feeling that the dangers are *massively* overblown. The fact that there aren't more bleach poisonings than kidney bean poisonings is pretty telling considering how frequently we put the latter in our faces

[@emryspaperart]

i VERY much appreciated that fun fact at the end