I found this piece interesting and surprising. Back when I used to eat a lot of beans I would always soak them, and I guess I just assumed this was common practice amongst bean consumers everywhere.
Aside from the benefits you’ve mentioned, another purported benefit of soaking is removing the Phytohaemagglutinin toxin: “The FDA also recommends soaking the beans for five hours to remove any residual toxins and then tossing the water out” (source). (An uncertainty here is that I’m not sure if the types of beans eaten in sub-Saharan Africa contain this toxin.) This toxin-removal consideration potentially raises the “unquantified health benefits” part of your cost-effectiveness estimate, though my guess is that any additional impact here is small compared to impact via the main two mechanisms. (Impact through this toxin-removal mechanism seems BOTEC-able in theory, but I likely won’t attempt it myself.)
I found this piece interesting and surprising. Back when I used to eat a lot of beans I would always soak them, and I guess I just assumed this was common practice amongst bean consumers everywhere.
Aside from the benefits you’ve mentioned, another purported benefit of soaking is removing the Phytohaemagglutinin toxin: “The FDA also recommends soaking the beans for five hours to remove any residual toxins and then tossing the water out” (source). (An uncertainty here is that I’m not sure if the types of beans eaten in sub-Saharan Africa contain this toxin.) This toxin-removal consideration potentially raises the “unquantified health benefits” part of your cost-effectiveness estimate, though my guess is that any additional impact here is small compared to impact via the main two mechanisms. (Impact through this toxin-removal mechanism seems BOTEC-able in theory, but I likely won’t attempt it myself.)
“BOTEC-able”… nice.