Kidney Beans
Why kidney beans are anti-inflammatory
Kidney beans are anti-inflammatory, and the main reason is their fibre, around 11 grams in a cooked cup. Fibre is the part of a plant you cannot digest. It slows the digestion of the starch it sits alongside, so a bean releases its sugar over hours instead of minutes. That pace is what matters here. Sugar arriving faster than your body can store it damages fats and proteins in the blood, and the immune system reacts to that damage.
The effect on a meal is easier to measure than the effect on inflammation. Healthy adults ate a quarter of a cup of kidney beans and had their blood sugar followed for the next two hours. The rise was far smaller than after white rice, pasta or potato. That is one meal measured in a lab rather than a year of eating.
Dried beans in a bag are only beans. Tinned ones are cooked before they reach you and sit in salted water, so drain them and rinse them under the tap. Tins of chilli and bean mixes are built on sauce and salt, so read the ingredients on those.
Kidney beans have to be cooked properly, more than other beans do. The raw bean carries a protein called phytohaemagglutinin. Undercooked beans cause vomiting and stomach cramps within a few hours of the meal. Soak them overnight, pour that water away, then boil them hard for ten minutes before dropping the heat to a simmer. A slow cooker on its low setting does not always reach that temperature.
Kidney Beans on the AIP diet
Kidney beans come out in the elimination phase of the Autoimmune Protocol, which drops every legume at the start. The reasoning is the lectins and the tough fibre in a bean seed, which the protocol treats as too much for a gut that is already reacting. They also return late, behind eggs, nuts and seeds. A chilli built on squash fills the gap meanwhile.
Benefits
- Around 11 grams of fibre in a cooked cup, so the meal reaches your blood slowly
- A quarter of a cup was enough to blunt the blood sugar rise of a meal
- About 15 grams of protein a cup, enough to replace the mince in a chilli
- A good plant source of iron, at roughly 4 mg a cooked cup
Watch out for
- Raw or undercooked beans cause vomiting and cramps, so boil them hard for ten minutes
- A slow cooker on low may never get hot enough to make dried beans safe
- Tinned beans sit in salted water, so drain and rinse them before use
- The skins hold back some of that iron, so pair the meal with peppers or tomato
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Frequently asked
Are kidney beans anti-inflammatory?
Yes. A cooked cup carries around 11 grams of fibre, which slows the digestion of the starch beside it, so the meal releases its sugar gradually instead of in a rush. Blood sugar that stays steady over years is one of the things that keeps low level inflammation down. Kidney beans also bring about 15 grams of protein a cup, so they can take the place of meat in the same dish.
Why do raw kidney beans make you ill?
Because of phytohaemagglutinin, a protein in the raw bean that brings on vomiting, cramps and diarrhoea within a few hours. Kidney beans hold more of it than other beans, and gentle heat does not get rid of it. Ten minutes at a rolling boil does, which is why dried kidney beans should never be left to cook in a slow cooker on its low setting.
Are tinned kidney beans as good as dried?
Nearly. They are cooked in the tin, so the fibre and the protein arrive intact and the cooking question is already settled. The difference is the liquid, which is usually salted, so tip them into a sieve and run cold water over them for a few seconds. Dried beans cost less per portion and need a soak plus an hour on the hob.
Are kidney beans allowed on the AIP diet?
No. Every legume comes out in the elimination phase, kidney beans included, and they are among the last foods to be tried again, behind eggs, nuts and seeds. If you are following the protocol, a chilli built on squash and minced meat does the same job in the bowl.
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