I was reading an article by Cecil about pica and I start to remember when I used to swallow raw beans with water. I stopped when my girlfreind’s mother told me that I wasn’t gettting any of the bean’s nutrients and was probally doing harm to my body. Is that true? Can swallowing raw beans do any good or bad to me?
I wouldn’t think it would do any good. Beans are seeds, and seeds are designed to pass through digestive tracts without, you know, getting digested. That’s why we have to cook them. On the other hand, I’m guessing you’d just poop 'em out without hurting yourself. That’s how many seeds are dispersed in nature - the fruit is eaten by something hungry, and the seeds have a nice, soft nutritious bed elsewhere to get their start in life.
It may depend on the bean.
A softer bean, well chewed, would be broken down by the enzymes in the digestive tract, and so you would get the same nutritional value as if it was cooked. It’s possible that a hard dry bean would not be digested properly, but in that case you would simply expel it along with other waste material in the stool.
Harm? Not unless you got a hard bean stuck in your throat or tore a lining with it. This seems to be a literal old wife’s tale.
Your thread title would indicate that you know about the behavioral nature of the habitual ingestion of inedibles. While it is probably not specifically dangerous to eat some varieties of beans, castor beans and some other beans which are not cooked could have a deleterious effect on you.
But the habit is a bad one. Pica has very debilitating side effects, including death. The treatment can include stringent control of your basic ability to live a normal life. The answer to your question might be very different if there are other examples of things you eat that are not generally accepted as food. Think about it. If the description fits, get professional guidance. It’s not a trivial problem, even if it currently does you no specific damage.
Tris