Spaghetti bolognese, chicken tikka masala, beans on toast, a fry-up – easily just some of the nation’s favourite staple dishes.
But another popular dish for us Brits actually has the capability to make you seriously ill if you fail to do one thing before chowing down on it.
The humble bowl of chilli. Con carne, or just chilli, the bowl of goodness is packed with flavour and is a comforting go-to for an easy to make, filling dish.
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And while you can mix up the ingredients here and there, there’s just some staple food bits that are a must. Chilli powder (obviously), tomatoes and red kidney beans – but the innocent looking little beans are the sneaky culprit of possible danger to your health.
Now, you might be someone who backs the raw food diet and in general, it’s considered to be a pretty health way to live.
However, red kidney beans really shouldn’t be eaten raw.
Why are raw red kidney beans dangerous?
The beans have a high count of the protein type lectins. Humans aren’t able to digest these, so they travel right through your gut unchanged. And eating large amounts of them can sometimes damage the gut wall.
The effects of this can cause symptoms such as diarrhoea and vomiting as well as possibly preventing the gut from fully absorbing nutrients.
While this might all sound a bit scary, it’s not hard to make your raw red kidney beans safe to eat. You’ve just got to prepare them correctly.
How do you properly prepare red kidney beans?
All you’ve got to do is totally soak the beans in water for at least five hours before eating them.
The Food Standards Agency (FSA) also warns that you should now slow cook raw red kidney beans ‘as it does not destroy the toxin and may increase its toxicity’.
Or, let’s be honest, there’s a much easier and more common way to go about making sure the kidney beans in your chilli are safe to eat.
Just buy them in can, obviously.
The FSA assured that canned kidney beans purchased in the supermarkets are safe to consume.
This is because they have been ‘pre-soaked and boiled to kill any toxins present’.
I mean, it seems like a no brainer to me.
And either way, you really shouldn’t let any of this put you off eating red kidney beans as they still do contain things that are good for you.
The little things are a great source of good carbs, resistant starch, insoluble fibre and many vital vitamins and minerals.
Chilli for tea anyone?
Topics: Health, Food And Drink
Jess Battison