Pulses/Legumes/Beans

Pulses /legumes/ Beans:

            As we have learnt that food means cereals, they come at the top of the list. After them the second on the list is Pulses, legumes. They are Dicot seeds, having two halves together. Means if we break them they depart in to two halves. As per Ayurveda although they have presence of earth and water element they also have wind and space elements in dominance. So they are generally astringent along with the sweet taste; some are also bitter tasting. They are dry, cooling, light, constipating, causes excess Vata, good for Kapha & Pita imbalance and for obesity.

           Do you remember what we need every day as a nutrition? Yes, we need around 10-15 % of proteins from our food. Cereals provide around 7-10% of proteins to us, so we can say half of the required proteins come from cereals. To fulfill the remaining half Pulses is a very good source along with dairy products.

          Also cereals and pulses work complimentary to each other. Cereals lack some amino acids (Proteins are made up from various amino acids) & pulses lack some. When we eat combination of two we get all the required amino acids.

          Those who have non-veg food as their staple diet they get proteins easily. But for a vegetarian person pulses & dairy is essential. If you see the chart( at the end) you can easily conclude that all the pulses have little higher protein content, around 17-28%. Naturally they take care to fulfill the demand. As they are high in proteins they have little less carbohydrates, around 54-61 %

           If you see how peoples eat pulses/beans world-wide is interesting. In India Dal-Roti or Dal –rice (Dal is a soup made out of pulses), in South America rice with beans, In Europe bread with beans, it’s a perfect combination, which makes the food almost complete food. But see the proportion, almost 70-80 % is cereal and 20-30% is a pulse, legume, not vice versa. That will cause imbalance. We will understand it latter.

            Along with carbs and proteins pulses give lot of vitamins, minerals and fiber if they are unpolished.   They are rich in Vitamin B group vitamins.  Now you know it means 7-8 Vitamins. They also have Iron, Calcium, Phosphorus and other minerals.

           As their protein content is more they are hard in nature. You can easily notice their hardness. When you cook them they take longer time to become soft than cereals.  As they are hard they take long time to cook. But remember they are not heavy. Heaviness and hardness are two different qualities. Try this, take one fist full of cereals in one hand and one fist full of Pulses in other hand. You will notice the lightness of them as compare to the cereals.

           Now let us understand them with Ayurvedic wisdom. Ayurveda also gave them importance after the Cereals. All the pulses have slightly astringent or bitter taste along with the sweet taste.   Naturally they have more wind element into them than cereals. Can you correlate? Astringent & bitter tastes have dominance of wind element. As wind is light the pulses are lighter than cereals. And also wind makes them more dry and hard. If you remember the taste chart the bitter, astringent tastes come at the lower part of it. So they are less important than cereals. Both the sciences modern medicine & Ayurveda talking the same about the proportion of Cereals and Pulses.

              In Marathi language the dals are also known as Varan, it means Aavaran, means topping, covering. It speaks about the proportion of cereals to pulses. So you take a heap of rice and cover it with Dal, Varan. That’s the proportion. Not vice versa, taking a dal and mixing small portion of rice into it.

              You can very well understand with the wisdom of Ayurveda that if you have more pulses you are going to suffer from Vata issues, wind issues as they have more wind into them. Many of the patients very clearly correlate that when they have more pulses they suffer from gases and problems due to them.

               Remember your experience. One day you ate more pulses and your stomach bloats. If you don’t know the gaseous nature of pulses you cannot correlate this bloating with Pulses. Especially a person suffering with Vata issues cannot tolerate pulses, he eats pulses and his Vata becomes stormy. The dryness, pains and aches in the body, the gases increases immediately.

              Today one stream of health emphasizes on having high protein diet. One has to check that having such diet doesn’t come up with any gas issues? Especially the proteins from pulses lack fats and can create more gas issues as compare to proteins from Dairy, Non-veg & nuts. Even the basic science from modern medicine says that for good metabolism of proteins fats are necessary. So be cautious for the side effects while having excess of proteins, especially from the pulses.

             There is one very good information has come up about hormone of happiness—Serotonin, which is in abundance in the brain. The carbs, sweets, chocolates increases this hormone making you happy but if you have more proteins serotonin levels goes down making you unhappy. So remember the side effect of excess protein intake.

           The culture around the world knows this fact about the pulses so while cooking them care has taken that how the wind, gas can be pacified.

           Do you remember which tastes pacify Vata? Yes, Sweet, sour & salty. See how people around the world cook pulses. In the north India they use sourness of raw mango. Of course they use the best medicine of Vata that is oil in abundance or ghee while cooking pulses. This oiliness and sourness pacifies Vata.

          In Maharashtra, middle part of India they use Jaggery & tamarind or Kokam, sweet and sour and with some oil or ghee. There is a tradition of putting a ghee on a sweet dish named Puran Poli made from chick peas.  This is also a complete food --rice, plain dal & ghee. (Carbohydrates, proteins & fats)In south India they will go for sourness of tamarind.

            The famous humus, an Arabian dish, works on the same principles. It is a mix of chick peas, sesame seeds & olive oil. In china they ferment the Soybean (Which increases the sourness of it) before eating.

 Use of salt and asafoetida will also pacify the windiness of pulses.  So with this precautions pulses are very useful for us. 

                Another precaution is about eating them raw in the form of sprouts. As we have seen that they are hard to cook. So in this form they are hard for digestion and so Ayurveda recommends not to have them raw.

           Another very good way to have proteins is fried pulses, pharsan, shev, Bhujiya, phafada etc. I was always wondering why this Gujarathi people always have Pharsan (Fried Pulses items) in their food. Now I got the answer. They used to be strictly vegetarian, now the culture is changing. Few of Gujarathi’s started eating Non-Veg food now. For a vegetarian person pulses is a very good source of Proteins and when you have them with oils then their gas producing effect is pacified.

              After many years I was reading a book on Biochemistry, a subject in Modern Medicine, and it mentions that for protein metabolism (proper utilization of protein in the body) fats are essential. So the Pharsan’s, the fires Pulses is a very good combination of Proteins & fats. And due to extreme fear about the oils the vegetarian person stopped having them, what a loss! Although our wise body demands it often but we restrict this very important food as a junk food.

                 If you actually calculate how much oil you need to make a Pharsan, you will come with the answer that very minimal oil actually goes inside. Just think if lots of oil was going inside these fried pulses items their prize should have touched the sky, as oils are expensive. But it is not the case. So in reality Pharsan’s need very less oils. So don’t worry. Yes, you can worry about the quality of oil used. It should be filtered or cold pressed Groundnut, Sesame, Musturd or coconut.

          I am waiting for the day when someone will make Pharsan’s in these oils and also using the organic pulses. Now a days they use cheap quality refined oils. Or the best way is to make them is at home. But have them and they will fulfill your nourishment.

              This is the normal proportion but you can increase them especially during Kapha issues. As the dryness of them acts against the stickiness of kapha.  They play a role of balanced food for kapha. During excess kapha  when very little hunger comes one can go for soups of pulses with addition of hot spices ( sambhar or rassam) or if hunger is little better some solid item made from pulses –– dosa or roti made of pluses flour. Or Thalipeeth--- roti from roasted flour of pulses. Or just eating roasted pulses as it is-- Chana –Phutana (Roasted Pulses). And our wise body prefers anything made from Pulses when Kapha takes over us.

               For obesity one can give preference to Pulses, increase the quantity of pulses to grains and you will benefit. But again remember the side effect of pulses. If you start getting gases, has suffer from Vata issues reduce the amount of pulses.

               As most of the pulses are cooling in nature (Except Horse gram) soup of pulses without hot spices is a very good remedy for the raised Pitta. And with the addition of the best medicine of Pitta, the ghee, it will be more ideal.

            Amongst them Green Gram (Moong) is the best one because it produces least gases. If you cook soup (Dal) from it a slimy layer like cream on the milk comes on the top. This is the stickiness of Green Gram. Due to this it produces least gases and therefore best among all Pulses.

               Next to it are Red Gram (Masoor) and Pigeon Pea (Toovar). Pulses like chick peas, Chinese peas, Garden Peas, kidney beans, flat beans, Chole, Rajma makes lot of gases and one has to take proper precautions while making them. ( See how they cook Chole & Rajma in North India – with lot of oil, isn’t it?)

            Only the Black gram (Udid, adhar) is heavy, sticky, sweet, and warm in nature and reduces Vata.

See the table for the qualities of different pulses.

The rough flour made from this pulses especially from Red gram or Chick peas acts as a very good scrubber for cleaning the skin.

             And remember to have less polished or naturally polished Pulses. They will offer you all the nature’s wealth into them.

Pulses, Beans

1.             Green gram (Moong) – Best among pulses, less Vata producing, strength giving, best for making soup (Dal) and purities (cleans) wounds.

2.             Red gram (Masoor) - Strength giving, good for skin, increases Vata, good for making bathing powder.

3.             Pigeon peas (Toovar) - Increases Vata, cold, reduces Kapha and Pitta.

4.             Garden peas (Matar) - Increases Vata too much, little bitter also.

5.             Chinese peas (Chuli) - Increases Vata too much, dry, heavy and increases bowel quantity.

6.             Chick peas (chana) - Increases Vata, are constipating.

7.             Flat beans (Pavata) - Hot, increases Pitta and Vata, reduces Kapha heavy, not good for eyes and genesis, helps in getting motions.

8.             Kidney beans (Mataki) - Cold, light, increases Vata.

9.             Black gram (Urad) - Hot, heavy, oily, sweet, helps in getting motions, reduces vata increases Kapha, Pitta and fats, increases stool quantity, increases shukra dhatu (responsible for genesis) and nourishing.

10.     Horse gram (kulith) – Hot, sour, dry, light, increases Pitta, causes acidity, reduces Kapha and Vata.

NUTRITIONAL VALUE OF DIFFERENT FOOD TYPES

(We are considering here unpolished cereals and pulses, and unrefined fats)

Food Item	Carbohydrates	Proteins	Fats	Minerals	Vitamins	Fibre	Water
Cereals	66.2-78.2 %	6.8-12.1%	0.5-1.7%	0.9-2.7%	B group vitamins (8 vitamins)	0.6-3.9%	11.9-14.9%
Pulses	54.5-60.9%	17.1- 28.2%	0.5- 1.7%	2.1-3.5%	B group vitamins (8 Vitamins)	0.7-5.3%	8.1-13.4 %
Leafy Vegetables	1.4-13 % very few more	0.4-8%	0.1- 0.8%	0.6-3.4%	Vitamin A & C	0,8-4,8%	73-95%
Fruit Vegetables	2.2-17 % very few more	0.4-4.1%	0.1-1.9% few more	0.3-1.6% few more	Vitamin A & C	0.5-3.0% few more	70-96.5 %
Fruits	3-30% few more	0.2-1.8% few more	0.1-1.5% few more	0.1-1.7% few more	Vitamin C	0.5-5% few more	60-95.8 %
Roots & tubers	3.4-28 % few more	0.2-2.5%	0.1-0.7%	0.4-2%	Vitamin B group & small amounts of Vitamin C	0.1-1.7%	60-94 % few less
Nuts & oil seeds	10-28.9 % few more	13.9-25.3% few less few more	25.6-64.5% few less	0.6-6.4%	Vitamin A,D,E,K	1-10.9% few more	3-6.5 % few more
Oils	00.00%	00.00%	100%	very minimal	Vitamin A,D,E,K	00.00%	00.00 %
Fish & sea food	0.9-7 %	8.9-25.2% Dried: 56-68 %	0.4-10.8% few more	0.9-3.2% Dried: 12-17.4%	Vitamin D Not much other vitamins	0.0%	53-83% Dried: 5-18 %
Meat, poultry & eggs	0.1-3.7 %	13,3-26.6 %	0.9-13.7%	1.0-2.4%	B group vitamins	0.0%	68.8-79.4 %