Beans, Beans, the Magical Fruit

...the more you eat, well, you all know the rest, right??

 

Chris and I try to eat healthy, at least 80% of the time.  We want to fuel our bodies with nutrition.  We move our bodies through a variety of physical activities.  We drink lots of water.  We consider ourselves "flexitarians," and don't restrict our diets.  I try to stay away from most dairy because it aggravates my acne and, sometimes, gives me an upset stomach.  Chris avoids peanuts because of a diagnosed minor allergy.

 

We don't eat much red meat, but we don't avoid it.  We'll eat chicken, pork and seafood.  Though, the toxic waste coming across the Pacific Ocean from Japan's nuclear reactor has made us question our seafood choices. 

 

We don't strictly eat organic.  If the price for organic is similar, then I will reach for it (more now since I have been learning about the effects to our bodies' entire network of systems when our hormones are off, which is greatly triggered by environmental toxicities).  But I need to make the best choices for our bodies and our bank account! 

 

We eat fruits & veggies everyday.  We eat oats (usually bolstered with quinoa) several times a week, mostly breakfast but the occasional dinner.  I make scrambled eggs filled with whatever veggies we have on hand and several spices.  We get HUGE bags of fresh kale and spinach at Costco.  We like spinach smoothies, full of frozen strawberries and bananas, cinnamon, almond milk, sometimes Greek yogurt. 

 

We have tried protein powders, especially when we were members of our gym in Indiana and wanted & needed a healthy post-workout meal .  However, we were suffering from bloating and gas and believe the protein powder to be the culprit.  It was soy-based and, perhaps, that was the issue.  Maybe we shouldn't have used the full serving size (altho, we would only use the serving size for one person when we added it to the blender).  Would plant-based proteins work for us?  Maybe.

 

We like the protein in beans, legumes.  I have several chickpea recipes, some for black, great northern and kidney beans, too.  We like black bean burgers; they are fantastic broken up and added to scrambled eggs!  Again, tho, the gas & bloating. 

 

I understand the digestion process and know some foods require a bit more work for our bodies to break down.  We tried Beano, but without success. 

 

So....do any of you have experience with this?  Can you give me some suggestions of how we might still be able to enjoy legumes as an excellent source of both protein and fiber, but without the eventual discomfort??  I can't begin to tell you how much I would appreciate it!!!