this post was submitted on 26 Aug 2025
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Vegan Recipes
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Sure :)
Here is an article from University of Illinois extension service with a pretty succinct breakdown and citations: https://extension.illinois.edu/blogs/live-well-eat-well/2024-02-29-kidney-beans-and-slow-cookers
Here is a much more in-depth source from NCBI: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8618113/
Here is an excerpt talking about the necessity of high temperatures: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21374488/
The main culprit is kidney beans since they are higher in those lectins. The soaking leeches some out into the water and heating to boiling denatures them. Lectins, afaik, are very nutritionally welcome and promote health benefits once broken down by high heat cooking, they're just dangerous in their raw state. A lot of things we eat are like that. Casava root is deadly until it's cooked into tapioca. Cashews are intense bio-irritant toxin until cooked down. Some plants are even dangerous depending on which half you eat... absolutely never eat potato fruit for example.
So as long as you raise the temperature for a small amount of time (it's recommended you boil kidney beans for 10 minutes, for example) it's enough to break down those lectins and render them nutritionally valuable. This is why it's often okay to just toss dry (washed) beans into a pressure cooker since they cook at a temperature above boiling. This is also why canned beans can be eaten directly out of the can, because the canning process is a miniature pressure cooker... they are cooked at high temperatures in the can itself generally.
I couldn't find a good list of all high phytohemagglutinin foods... I just know the ones to watch out for are dry beans. Kidney beans (any variety) and soy beans are the real big ones and very common in vegetarian and vegan foods in larger quantities, so it's worth keeping in mind.
All that is to say, absolutely don't avoid eating these foods when properly cooked. They are very healthy and delicious... just be aware of food safety. :)