Re: good video - Global Warming & Nutrition

Pramesh Rutaji wrote:
Marshall Price wrote:
Pramesh Rutaji wrote:
Marshall Price wrote:
What do you think of sprouts, chick peas, raita, and curries?

I've yet to develop a taste for sprouts - haven't gotten past the grass smell. I don't make curries anymore since I used to do so with flour, but I do sprinkle a very generous helping of hot curry powder on fried or boiled eggs from time to time. Legumes I mostly avoid since their domestication is a relative recent event although I'm leaning towards the paleo subgroup that believes that if you can eat it raw, it's mostly likely ok; If one has to dry it first and/or soaking is required, it should best be avoided - it's no paleo.
What makes you say dry seeds aren't paleo? They've been drying out, getting soaked, and sprouting for half a billion years, at least, which is, let me see -- about half a billion years *before* the paleolithic.

I didn't say seeds generally, but legumes. The reason is that they contain lectins. Soaking and cooking can get rid of most of the lectins, but likely paleo man didn't collect legumes and soak them 50,000 years ago in order to make the eatable. Some legumes also contain phytoestrogens, lectins, phytates, and protease inhibitors.

Hmm. Something to think about.

(Personally, I'm not concerned about phytoestrogens, phytates, or protease inhibitors.)

According to /Merck Index 13/, lectins are "widely distributed in nature; ... the word is "now used to designate 'a sugar-binding protein or glycoprotein of non-immune origin which agglutinates cells and/or precipitates glycoconjugates....'" They are "found primarily in seeds of plants, but also occur in roots, leaves and bark. In addition, they are present in invertebrates such as clams, snails, and horseshoe crabs, and in several vertebrate species." "Lectins vary considerably in chemical and physical properties; only a limited number have been purified. Mol wts of 17,000 to 400,000 have been reported and most lectins have been found to contain Mn2+ and Ca2+. Nearly all lectins can be inhibited by free oligo- or monosaccharides of appropriate specificity." "USE: As tools for studying cell surface properties; in cancer research."

(Under "ricin," it says, "The hemagglutinating activity of ricin was initially believed to be the cause of its high toxicity, but later studies have shown that separate proteins are responsible....")

Considering how nutritious legumes are, I wonder whether the fact that lectins' binding sites can be occupied by sugars might make them easily rendered harmless by eating them along with honey, fruit, or other ancient foods containing sugars.

Admittedly, there are many legumes to beware of, but to rule out all foods that contain lectins seems overly cautious. Stone age people surely discovered what was edible by trial and error, ie the scientific method.

So I wonder, what's the problem with legumes, with respect to lectins?

--
Marshall Price of Miami
Known to Yahoo as d021317c
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Relevant Pages

  • Re: good video - Global Warming & Nutrition
    ... I've yet to develop a taste for sprouts - haven't gotten past the grass smell. ... Legumes I mostly avoid since their domestication is a relative recent event although I'm leaning towards the paleo subgroup that believes that if you can eat it raw, it's mostly likely ok; If one has to dry it first and/or soaking is required, it should best be avoided - it's no paleo. ... Soaking and cooking can get rid of most of the lectins, but likely paleo man didn't collect legumes and soak them 50,000 years ago in order to make the eatable. ...
    (sci.med.nutrition)
  • Re: good video - Global Warming & Nutrition
    ... I've yet to develop a taste for sprouts - haven't gotten past the grass smell. ... Legumes I mostly avoid since their domestication is a relative recent event although I'm leaning towards the paleo subgroup that believes that if you can eat it raw, it's mostly likely ok; If one has to dry it first and/or soaking is required, it should best be avoided - it's no paleo. ... Soaking and cooking can get rid of most of the lectins, but likely paleo man didn't collect legumes and soak them 50,000 years ago in order to make the eatable. ...
    (sci.med.nutrition)
  • Re: good video - Global Warming & Nutrition
    ... I've yet to develop a taste for sprouts - haven't gotten past the grass smell. ... Legumes I mostly avoid since their domestication is a relative recent event although I'm leaning towards the paleo subgroup that believes that if you can eat it raw, it's mostly likely ok; If one has to dry it first and/or soaking is required, it should best be avoided - it's no paleo. ... Soaking and cooking can get rid of most of the lectins, but likely paleo man didn't collect legumes and soak them 50,000 years ago in order to make the eatable. ...
    (sci.med.nutrition)