Market Farming

[Allan Balliett <igg AT igg.com>]

Gosh, folks, isn't a phytate a phyto-toxin?

Help me here, Pat: Do asians really have a history of drinking soy milk?

Here's a little bit from the Sally Fallon folks, enough to prove that 
your person history is simply A MIRACLE!

>  The Chinese did not eat unfermented soybeans as they did other 
> legumes such as lentils because the soybean contains large 
> quantities of natural toxins or "antinutrients". First among them 
> are potent enzyme inhibitors that block the action of trypsin and 
> other enzymes needed for protein digestion.
>
>  These inhibitors are large, tightly folded proteins that are not 
> completely deactivated during ordinary cooking. They can produce 
> serious gastric distress, reduced protein digestion and chronic 
> deficiencies in amino acid uptake. In test animals, diets high in 
> trypsin inhibitors cause enlargement and pathological conditions of 
> the pancreas, including cancer.14
>
> Soybeans also contain haemagglutinin, a clot-promoting substance 
> that causes red blood cells to clump together.
>
> Trypsin inhibitors and haemagglutinin are growth inhibitors. 
> Weanling rats fed soy containing these antinutrients fail to grow 
> normally. Growth-depressant compounds are deactivated during the 
> process of fermentation, so once the Chinese discovered how to 
> ferment the soybean, they began to incorporate soy foods into their 
> diets.
>
>  In precipitated products, enzyme inhibitors concentrate in the 
> soaking liquid rather than in the curd. Thus, in tofu and bean curd, 
> growth depressants are reduced in quantity but not completely 
> eliminated.

Now, what's the deal with FAVA BEANS? With the exception of a few 
"Mediterranean types" who have a sensitivity to them, I've only heard 
good about them We include them and edamame in our CSA shares thanks 
to an early request from the Fresh Farm Market people in DC.

Also, am I in error, or are edamame beans exempt from the problems 
mentioned above? It is my understanding that THEY ARE. That they are 
an 'edible' soy bean, which distinguishes them from the sort of beans 
that Asians never at as beans but only as fermented products.

Thanks

-Allan