are peas and green beans okay?
(61 posts) (29 voices)-
sammylou
Memberi posted this question as a comment on mark's salad posting but realized it was from a year ago so i'm not sure it will get noticed.
in that posting, 1 of the salads contained snow peas and the other green beans. i have since done further digging on the site and found many other recipes that call for green beans or peas, including mark's video where he makes his 2 minute salad that he eats every day.
i am very confused because i thought these were legumes and to be avoided. can someone clarify? can i go back to eating these two foods? can they be considered vegetable options [even though i know they are legumes]?
Posted 9 months ago # -
I eat them. I figure if I can eat it raw, it's probably ok.
Posted 9 months ago # -
Tarlach
MemberJust because you ate them raw, doesn't mean Grok did. They may not have even been available to him in the form that we get now....
Legumes are excluded as they contain lectins to protect the seed from being digested.
Snow peas are a weird one as they don't taste horrible raw like most beans, but I lump them with the rest of the family of legumes - so they are out.
Posted 9 months ago # -
Yes, yes, we know. You're the Paleo authority. Personally, I will be growing and eating plenty of raw peas and green beans this summer.
Posted 9 months ago # -
Tarlach
MemberSorry for having an opinion.
You want to eat legumes, then go ahead. Did Grok? It's most likely he did not.
It's a pretty poor attitude to hassle me for trying to answer a question, just because my opinions differ to yours.
I just wish that when I started eating paleo years ago, that I could have gotten such easy access to answers for all of my questions. Especially from people who have lived paleo long term and done years of research.
Posted 9 months ago # -
I think that this question is really a case of paleo versus primal. Tarlach is very much a paleo person. As a paleo eater he is definitely correct in his position. However, Mark is not a paleo eater and in his primal blueprint he has identified a few exceptions to the rule. That is why he eats peas, and green beans, and tomatoes, and drinks the occasional beer.
I don't think Mark would consider peas and green beans a 20% cheat according to the PB. It would be considered a cheat according to a paleo diet.
Posted 9 months ago # -
musajen
MemberI never realized peas and green beans were legumes and have been eating them as part of my primal diet. I like 'em and don't see a reason to give them up. It's not like they're a part of my daily intake, just something I throw in on ocassion so I'm not worried about it.
Posted 9 months ago # -
Tarlach
MemberAccording to Wikipedia green beans are legumes.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_bean
"Green beans (American English), French beans or runner beans (British English) are the unripe fruit of any kind of bean,"
and under Bean
"Bean" can be used as a near-synonym of "pulse", an edible legumePosted 9 months ago # -
I really think that this is another situation about finding your own personal balance. For me, I can really only eat leafy greens raw. Everything else is too fiborous (I think that's the word I am looking for) for my system to digest easily; therefore, I generally lightly steam or sauté my veggies before consuming. Even if fully cooked, peas and green beans still do not agree with me; therefore, I personally do not eat them at all.
I know that this attitude of exalting personal balance over a fixed ideal makes me horribly un-primal and un-paleo. Whatever. I am more concerned about finding what works for me as an individual than engaging in some prehistoric role play. Certainly, there are some fundamentals which we all hold to be true; we can all agree that a grain-based diet with excessive amounts of dairy, sugar, and food additives is horrible for anyone.
Abiding by Grok's diet does help us to make wise food choices, but I do not believe that it is the only factor in deciding whether something is fit for consumption. In my opinion, there is no fixed standard that will work for everyone.
Posted 9 months ago # -
madMUHHH
MemberDefinitely agree with you there, Shine. Great post!
But I really think it's the best to start from a paleo/primal perspective, because it's most likely that your body will get along with it well. If you want to include things like legumes, no problem! Just be sure to observe what it's doing to your body, even though that may be hard at times, because certain foods might affect you in a negative way without you actually realizing it.
Posted 9 months ago # -
Ecala
MemberThat's odd. ....According to Wikipedia
Green beans are not legumes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_(legume)
A pulse is an annual leguminous crop yielding from one to twelve grains or seeds of variable size, shape, and color within a pod. Pulses are used for food and animal feed. The term "pulse", as used by the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), is reserved for crops harvested solely for the dry grain. This excludes green beans and green peas, which are considered vegetable crops.
Posted 9 months ago # -
Ecala
Memberbad link above
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pulse_(legume)I don't know if that one will work either though
Posted 9 months ago # -
sammylou
Memberthanks for all the great replies. and i totally agree that we all need to choose what is right for us. but one thing i was hoping for was an idea of why these items might be less harmful than other legumes. i don't notice mark providing recipes with lentils or kidney beans so my reasoning was that if he includes peas and green beans in his diet [whether often or seldom] then is it because they have more value than other legumes? do they not have the same levels of antinutrients? or are they just lower carb? knowing why [scientifically] they might be a decent exception helps me to decide if, and how often, i may want to include them. i really like both and have always considered them veggies [esp green beans].
does that make sense?
Posted 9 months ago # -
SerialSinner
MemberLegume or not, green beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) is a domesticated plant, so technically it's not paleo.
To what extent are they bad if prepared properly, I don't know. But there's some research about it:
http://tinyurl.com/qvdld4Posted 9 months ago # -
SerialSinner
MemberI know that all legumes have pods, but I am not sure about the opposite.
Basically, paleo food was found in pre-agrarian times, is palatable and can be eaten raw. Domesticated plants are, by definition, not paleo.
Picture Grok wandering a fertile land while hungry before agriculture had been discovered. What would he eat? Thats paleo food.
Posted 9 months ago # -
SerialSinner
MemberIn my own words, a domesticated plant is the result of a "wild" plant being artificially selected so that it acquires one or more desired characteristics.
I believe we evolved a preference for certain tastes in order to discriminate the good from the bad things to eat, hence my mention of "palatable" as a condition for a food to be primal. If it grew around us, and we evolved to like it, it's probably good for us.
Posted 9 months ago # -
Nick
MemberGreen beans are the unripe fruit of a variety of bean types. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_beans
That includes the common bean, which includes black, kidney, pinto, white, etc. beans.
I think the reason they're classified as "vegetables" and not as "pulses" is probably due to a couple reasons. It's green and is typically eaten like a vegetable, e.g. meat, mashed potatoes, and green beans (in lieu of broccoli, etc.). Also, it benefits the agricultural industry because now they're more able to sell green beans into school lunch programs, etc., and people will buy them thinking they're getting a spinach-equivalent green vegetable. For that reason things like ketchup and mashed potatoes are also sometimes considered vegetables.Green peas are quite sugary -- a cup of green peas has 21g carbs, 14g minus fiber, and 8g of that 14g is simple sugar.
I'm not sure of the lectin/phytic acid content of either green beans or peas, but they're technically not vegetables, and they've got a fair bit of sugar in them. I personally avoid them just because I'm minimizing carbohydrates. Obviously, whether to eat them is an individual decision, though.Posted 9 months ago # -
Nick
MemberAsparagus is definitely a vegetable, and grows wild around Europe. Carb-wise, I put it in the same category as broccoli (more than leafy greens, but less than root vegetables like carrots), which is more something to be aware of if you're really trying to get into ketosis.
Incidentally, nightshades are good for something here: a tomato plant in your garden can help repel the asparagus beetle.Posted 9 months ago #
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