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ScienceDaily: Why Red Beans And Rice Can Be Nauseating

ScienceDaily: Why Red Beans And Rice Can Be Nauseating

Scientists have discovered how lectins, a family of proteins believed to be a natural insecticide that is abundant in undercooked legumes and grains, can make you feel temporarily miserable.

"It's known that it can be a toxin," Dr. Paul L. McNeil, cell biologist at the Medical College of Georgia, says of the lectin protein that's commonly found in vegetables. Lectins, which bind strongly to carbohydrates that decorate cell surfaces, have a particular affinity for the heavy-carbohydrate coats of epithelial cells that line the gastrointestinal tract.

Researchers have long known that ingesting too much undercooked lectin can cause nausea, diarrhea and vomiting. What they didn't know was how lectin caused food poisoning.

Work published Aug. 1 in PloS One shows lectins disable GI tract cells, which are constantly bombarded while digesting food, from repairing tears in cells walls from all the activity. Repair normally occurs in seconds: internal membranes move up to patch the tear, the cell recovers and the one-cell layer lining of the GI tract remains intact.

"If those individual cells cannot repair tears, they die," says Dr. McNeil. "That means you have gaps in the integrity of the surface area of the epithelium and you are exposing the nasty internal world of your GI tract to your blood supply."

The epithelial lining is a continuous, natural barrier between digesting food in the GI tract and the blood supply. When intact, it allows only good stuff like nutrients to pass through.

"Your body senses that lack of barrier function and tells you to eliminate the entire contents of the GI tract," says Dr. McNeil, noting that lectin's apparent role as a natural insecticide and as a source of food poisoning are related. "If you get vomiting and diarrhea you are going to eliminate the entire contents of your gastrointestinal tract, right" And, you are not going to eat red beans again the next day, right" That is probably the point if they are natural insecticides. Alcohol will do the same thing. When you drink too much alcohol, you can destroy the lining of your stomach."

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