On Sat, 17 Jul 1999, Ray Audette wrote:

> Actually, the process of soaking and sprouting lentils is technologically
> complex and of relatively recent vintage.  What you describe would result in
> a "soup" of potentially deadly pathogens.

I wasn't talking about sprouting lentils, but merely soaking them
to make them edible.  After soaking, they are rinsed.  It's not
hard to do.

> If
> this process is continued until the culture is killed by it's own excrement,
> it is said to be fermented.  Fermentation is a highly technical process
> perhaps only fully understood since the work of Louis Pasteur.  Even the
> fermented bean sprouts (tofu, etc.) are still high in phytates (plant
> poisons) and can cause problems in humans.

Ray, your lateral thinking continues to amaze me.  Fermentation
may have only been *understood* since Pasteur, but it has been
*practiced* for thousands of years.  But in any case, I wasn't
talking about fermentation.  You don't have to ferment lentils to
eat them.  For that matter, tofu isn't fermented either, although
I wasn't making any point about tofu either.

I was not arguing in favor of a "lentil-based diet."  I do think,
however, that there is no good reason to suppose that lentils
would have been avoided where they were available, since they are
so easily prepared.  As we have seen in other posts, phytates
are not uniformly harmful to humans, and there is nothing to
indicate that intermittent consumption of them in small
quantities is dangerous.  Immature "snap" beans, snow peas, etc.,
also contain phytates, but are edible raw and would have been
consumed as well.

Todd Moody
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