Topic: Are runner beans poisonous?

[wolrik]

I think it's too big a coincidence for it to be anything else but the beans. It's the only thing we ate in common all day, plus the onset time of around three hours and the time it lasts after that, 4/5 hours, which, if you Google around, seems to be par for the course. I found out this morning that the variety I ate most of is Scarlet runner beans.

I know you should disbelieve 95% of what you read online, and take a pinch of salt with the rest, but fromthe number of hits, it seems pretty conclusive to me. I'm not saying everyone will be affected the same, and I did make a bit of a pig of myself... :)

Yes, I have eaten them before, but always when the beans were smaller and younger, and in much smaller quantities.

Take a look at http://www.wereyouwondering.com/did-you-know-that-raw-runner-beans-are-toxic/

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

oh dear wolrik, hope you're feeling better. That's sorted than out hopefully. erm, you wouldn't mind doing it again, just so we can be 100% sure?  :)

hope you're next post is more positive

[tonybloke]

Welcome to the forum wolrik, what a strange way of finding the forum!!
Hope you and the O.H. are feeling better today, and that you stick around on the forum, we are a friendly bunch (well, most of us are;) )  ;D ;D ;D

[JoeCocker]

I picked and shelled a half cullinder full of runner beans on Tuesday and had them in a sausage stew, tasted marvellous, didn't soak them before!

[wolrik]

Welcome to the forum wolrik, what a strange way of finding the forum!!
Hope you and the O.H. are feeling better today, and that you stick around on the forum, we are a friendly bunch (well, most of us are;) )  ;D ;D ;D

Thanks! It's mostly just tiredness today, from lack of sleep, and the aching muscles from throwing up. I've passed the forum link onto my o/h as she is the gardener, not me. It's her allotment, though if there's any digging to be done, or another shed to built/repaired, it becomes "our allotment."  ;D

[Robert_Brenchley]

I've heard that raw beans can be poisonous, but I've never come across a case.

[cheerfulness]

I've heard too that it was poisonous to eat them raw but didn't worry as I've always done it. Just the odd few.

Might mention this to my mum as she constantly munches on mine as she walks round my garden.
She's in her later 70's so I'd hate to think she might be more at risk. Doubt it tho. She's fitter than me!  :-\

[wolrik]

I should point out, just in case isn't clear to anyone, that what we were eating wasn't the green pods, but the seeds that grow once the pods are past their best for cooking, and which really ought to have been saved to plant next year.

The culprits...

[thifasmom]

I should point out, just in case isn't clear to anyone, that what we were eating wasn't the green pods, but the seeds that grow once the pods are past their best for cooking, and which really ought to have been saved to plant next year.

The culprits...

yes i would think that would make you ill.

[RogerM]

Welcome to the forum wolrik, what a strange way of finding the forum!!

Same for me!

Google sent me here from my search on "poisonous runner beans"

Clearing out the old runner beans patch I collected a lot of over grown green pods with some nice looking fat jucy beans inside. Later that evening cooked in a nice tomato sauce they tasted fantastic and I ate a LOT.  Now I expected a bit of wind but not two days of stomach upset and mad dashes to the toilet, oh, and I got the wind as well. I'm a pretty tough guy when it comes to food and eating strange things but these things had me beaten!

I simmered them for half an hour with tomatoes and herbs. Perhaps they needed boiling for a week.

The culprits...



Be warned!

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

welcome to Ailments For All, RogerM

[Digeroo]

I thought that if you cook kidney beans that you needed to soak them overnight and then throw away the cooking water.

If you simmer them with the tomatoes and herbs you presumably ate the cooking water.

Pleased to hear that it seems to be the kidney beans that are the problem I can go back to nibbling the green runners raw.

Hope all you folks with stomach problems are getting better.  I hope you find there are some more enjoyable things on this forum.

[thifasmom]

Welcome to the forum wolrik, what a strange way of finding the forum!!

Same for me!

Google sent me here from my search on "poisonous runner beans"

Clearing out the old runner beans patch I collected a lot of over grown green pods with some nice looking fat jucy beans inside. Later that evening cooked in a nice tomato sauce they tasted fantastic and I ate a LOT.  Now I expected a bit of wind but not two days of stomach upset and mad dashes to the toilet, oh, and I got the wind as well. I'm a pretty tough guy when it comes to food and eating strange things but these things had me beaten!

I simmered them for half an hour with tomatoes and herbs. Perhaps they needed boiling for a week.

The culprits...



Be warned!

i cook the mature runner beans fresh or dry as i would cook all my legumes in a pressure cooker: for dry at least 1hr 20 - 30 minutes and for fresh: at least 45minutes to an hour.

[Rhubarb Thrasher]

the interesting point was, undercooked beans are worse than raw ones

it's not a great advertisement for allotmenteering when a few of our new members arrive here after making themselves sick as dogs after eating the food they grow themselves  :)

[Eristic]

This might make some of you laugh. A few days ago I was cutting down and reducing the tomato foliage when somehow I managed to get a bean vine round my neck. Not a runner bean but a climbing Asian bean. This contact really stung me and I still have a noticeable rash. Felt like being garroted with a nettle.

Go on then, laugh, but you have to bear in mind that when I try to work at the far end of the tunnel I need a compass to guarantee finding the way out.

[cristobal]

Yep, it's definitely true.  Try not to eat the seed beans raw.  The phytohemagglutinin will do you in if you consume more than a handful.  Fresh beans out of their pods need to be cooked through.

With dried beans, You should be even more careful.  After soaking, bring them to a rolling boil and keep it there for at least 10 mins to denature whatever phytohemagglutinin is present before turning the heat down to simmer.

Not all shelled beans have large quantities of phytohemagglutinin under the skin but, having suffered once, I'll never take a chance ever again!