Hi Gerry,

> <<
>  This rather surprises me as it is a well known fact. Raw string
>  beans contain a toxin known as "phasine". It is a strong diuretic
>  and small amounts are even used by the medical industry in diuretic
>  medicines. Cooking neutralises the phasine.
>
>  And just in case you decide to switch to raw broadbeans or red
>  or white kidney beans, there is some bad news here as well. They
>  contain an even more dangerous toxin known as "phytohaemagglutinin".
>
>  Best regards (and best leave raw beans and seeds alone),
>
>  Alan >
>
> *******
> Alan:
>
> I have heard Naturaly Hygiene doctors say asparagus was not a good food to
> consume (don't recall the mentions of string beans), but they didn't elaborate
> about the reasons. Perhaps the same diuretic protein as that which you
> attribute to string beans?
> gc

The diuretic in asparagus is an acid known as asparagin. Personally
I don't particularly like raw asparagus (pretty stringy for one
thing unless you can get it fresh and early in the relatively short
season) and the asparagus fields are nearly always doused with plenty
of herbicide in order to be able to see the tips just breaking the
soil surface). I live in a famous German asparagus-growing area BTW.

Best regards,

Alan