Monday, March 25, 2013

Tummy Trouble

I am very disturbed to have confirmed my suspicion that I now have a not so nice reaction to lentils. I love lentils. I've been eating them for YEARS. I love them hot. I love them cold. I love them solo or with lots of veggies.

But lately, lentils DO NOT love me back. The show this lack of love by giving me two days of painful cramps with all kinds of other things you can imagine.

I've done some research, as I always do when trying to figure out this kind of thing, and it seems that just like dry beans, legumes have some substances that can make digestion very difficult. I love beans too but generally buy canned beans so I don't have to go through the process of soaking prior to use. Lentils however, I've never had a problem with and they cook up so fast, 30 minutes or less. Apparently you should also soak lentils, and the green ones and black ones are the most difficult to digest. The addition of turmeric can potentially help offset gastric distress.

There is a great deal of debate between the paleo community and other raw food/whole food schools of thought on whether or not lentils have "anti-nutrients" and thus should not be consumed. In general I've found that it doesn't really matter what other's say, I have to go with what seems true for me. In this case, lentils currently don't like me. I'm not sure when I'll be willing to give them a try again, even with soaking and adding turmeric and ginger. Two days of misery following ingestion is really not worth it to me when there are other foods out there.

I just hope this "sensitivity" does not start to extend to other legumes because I depend on beans and nuts as a large part of my diet.

Do you have issues with legumes? Are they a big part of your diet? I'd love to hear your experience with them.

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