Greetings Bean Scouts. Video:
Two blog posts ago I wrote about Fava Beans, and I gave a recipe for Ful Medames, using canned fava beans. I recently tried to make Ful Medames using medium sized fava beans and it failed, so I am going to have to get my hands on some smaller fava beans and try again. In the mean time this would be a good moment to bring up favism. I have been getting a lot of questions about this recessive genetic condition, so I will explain it, by paraphrasing wikipedia. Favism is also know as Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency and people with this condition have low levels of Glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase (from now on know as G6PD). G6PD deficiency is a very common human enzyme defect, it is most prevalent in people with Mediterranean, South Asian and African ancestries, is found almost exclusively in men, and may protect against malaria. Having a G6PD deficiency doesn’t necessarily mean that you have favism, and favism is more common in children with the deficiency than it is with adults. Fava beans contain high levels of the alkaloid oxidants vicine, divicine, and convicine, which cause oxidative stress. In people with G6PD deficiency, these oxidants can cause red blood cells to burst, leading to anemia among other symptoms. Fava beans should also be avoided by people using monoamine oxidase inhibitors and the thick skins have tannins that could have an inhibitory affect on enzymes. If this post is starting to seem spookier than my last post, you should also know that fava beans contain l-dopa, a substance that may prevent hypertension and is also used in treating Parkinson’s. As Paracelsus said, “Everything is poison and nothing is without poison.” So maybe it is important to not rely too heavily on any particular kind of bean.
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