Question

Grains Questions

1) What is the sugar or oligosaccharide in pulses that is not in cereals, and that is responsible for the conditional widely known as "Delhi Belly" by visitors to India

2) What is a major environmental advantage of growing pulses? Why are their "good neighbours"?

3) What is "aquafaba" and what are its special properties?

Answer 1

1. Raffinose is the oligosaccharide present in pulses and absent in cereals. The other sugars of raffinose family are stachyose and verbascose. These sugars cannot be digested by human enzymes and pass undigested to large intestine where they are anaerobically fermented by gut bacteria to produce gases carbon dioxide, methane, and hydrogen. This causes bloating, flatulence, constipation and diarrhoea.

2. Pulses convert atmospheric nitrogen into nutrients essential for the growth of plants. Growing pulses makes the soil more fertile. Thus the need of fertilisers is reduced.

3. Aquafaba is the viscous water in which legume seeds are cooked. It is used as a replacement for egg white. It has emulsifying, foaming, binding, gelatinising and thickening properties.