快猫短视频

IS something going on? Could there be a conspiracy against me? I grow fond of
a convenience food only to find it suddenly disappears from the supermarket
shelves.

First, it was 鈥淭uscan beans鈥濃�攁nd they still haven鈥檛 come back鈥攁nd
then it was a microwaveable melange of beans, spiced to taste like an Indian
dahl. All I鈥檓 asking for is a tasty meal of precooked quality plant food. Anyone
could eat it. Low in cholesterol and saturated fat, high in protein, fibre and
slow-release carbohydrate. A regular diet of beans reduces your risk of heart
disease, cancer and diabetes鈥攁nd fends off constipation to boot. So why
are cook-chilled beans in a palatable sauce well-nigh impossible to buy in
today鈥檚 supermarkets?

I have a theory. I suspect these beany concoctions do not sell. Not because
people don鈥檛 like the taste, but because Britons, at least, live in mortal fear
of flatulence. Breaking wind within earshot of another human being is widely
regarded as one of the most embarrassing things that can happen to us, on a par
with discovering that you have strayed into the other sex鈥檚 toilet, or realising
at an interview that your sweaty armpits show. Beans are pilloried as the prime
source of gaseous faux pas.

There is a grain of truth in popular prejudice. Britain鈥檚 leading colon
expert, John Cummings of the Dunn Clinical Nutrition Centre in Cambridge,
confirms that beans do boost the production of carbon dioxide, hydrogen and
sometimes methane in the large intestine. These are odourless gases, mind.
(Noxious odours arise only if you overindulge in protein.) Yet you鈥檇 have to
consume half your daily calories as soya beans, say, to generate 50 per cent
more flatus gas than average. Everyone, even beanophobes, expels intestinal gas
at a substantial rate. According to Cummings, 鈥渇latus gas is passed about 14
times a day in healthy subjects, with a volume of between 25 and 100 millilitres
on each occasion.鈥�

Is that so very bad? I mean, it happens to all of us. We may live in a highly
medicalised culture, but we aren鈥檛 half coy about our bodily functions. OK, so
鈥渇latus鈥� is a bit too scientific; yet 鈥渇art鈥�, the colloquial alternative, 鈥渋s
even less acceptable in polite conversation than faeces鈥�, says Kenneth Heaton, a
gastroenterologist at the Bristol Royal Infirmary and author of
Understanding Your Bowels. 鈥淧robably the nearest we have to an expression
which is both unambiguous and reasonably polite is `voiding鈥� wind,鈥� he
hazards.

But 鈥渄istaste and reticence can go too far鈥�, he points out. After all, the
embarrassing gas comes from the 400-odd species of friendly bacteria that live
in your gut. Intestinal wind is a sign that you are supplying
difficult-to-digest carbohydrate to feed these beneficial microbes鈥攁nd so
substantially lowering your risk of bowel cancer, which in Britain is
responsible for one in eight of all deaths from cancer.

Beans are better at nourishing our colonic colleagues than virtually any
other common food, Cummings has shown. Beans provide non-absorbable sugar-like
molecules known as oligosaccharides, which only gut bacteria can break down.
More fodder for the good microbes of the bowel comes from 鈥渞esistant
starch鈥濃�攁lmost half the starch in cooked haricot beans is in this form.
This starch fends off digestion early on in the gut, and so arrives intact for
the bacteria in the colon.

And there鈥檚 another bonus from beans. The starch that isn鈥檛 鈥渞esistant鈥� turns
out to be mostly the 鈥渟lowly digestible鈥� sort. This is broken down earlier in
the gut, in the small intestine, and it too is beneficial. Because it can only
be slowly digested and absorbed into the bloodstream as glucose, it dampens down
the 鈥渋nsulin surge鈥� caused by easily digestible carbohydrates. So the risks of
developing late-onset diabetes are reduced, and some ageing processes are slowed
as well.

So tuck into this miracle food, but be sensible. Don鈥檛 suddenly increase your
fibre intake, or the extra gas can cause bloating and abdominal pain. 鈥淎 slow
build-up in dose allows the bacteria and gut to adjust,鈥� says Cummings. 鈥淩espect
your bowel bacteria,鈥� Heaton advises.

Half a dozen well-researched physiological mechanisms link a diet rich in
beans, cereals, fruit and veg to a reduction in your risk of developing cancer
of the large bowel alone. The evidence is now clear enough to offer 鈥渁 strong
case for public health policy in this area,鈥� the cautious Cummings concludes.
Are you listening out there, all you supermarket supremos? Beans means
health.