Legume allergy, bean allergy, really?!! Yep. Some people are allergic to beans and legumes.

We all know about peanut allergy. Not everyone knows that peanuts are, in fact, not nuts, but legumes. They belong to the same family as lentils, peas, and chickpeas. Beans are a "subfamily", and so are clover and licorice.

If you are on the vegetarian or vegan path, you are very likely to add more beans and legumes to your diet. After all, they are precious sources of protein and various other nutrients, including minerals and fiber.

But they also contain common allergen proteins: vicilin and convicilin.

In some people they can cause asthma, sneezing, swollen throat and lips, eczema, healdaches, stomach cramps, rashes, and even anaphylaxis.

And from reading people's questions on the Internet forums, I see that in some people such allergies suddenly start at a later age, and relate to some particular type of beans, such as pinto beans, wax beans, or soy beans.

Just keep this in mind when you start following a plant-based diet. If you feel discomfort, stop and recall what you ate. Experiment by removing and adding that food to your diet.

Sometimes, people abandon the whole vegetarian diet because of the problem that had with one or two particular foods. And these problems can be fixed by eliminating some common foods that we couldn't even suspect could cause the problem.

People consuming plant-based or mostly plant-based diets live longer and healthier. So I hope you won't let things like bean allergies change your course.

...And I have never heard of kale allergy :) So feel free to check out my recent article, Frozen kale juice

To your health, Olga