Broad beans could be the cure for the British blues, says Cambridge researcher

Nadia Mohd-Radzman is a botanist on a mission. The University of Cambridge researcher wants the UK to recognise the wonders of a crop she believes can transform the nation’s health. Hence her campaign – for the broad bean.

Vicia faba has a lot of special properties, she argues. For example, it is rich in protein, fiber and iron. And most importantly, it contains chemicals that have been linked to lasting improvements in the mood and emotions of those who consume it, Mohd-Radzman told the Observer.

For these reasons, Britain should recognise the value of a legume that has been ignored for too long, argues the scientist, who has just launched a campaign to promote the British broad bean. This includes steps to improve varieties, publishing recipes to make the bean more palatable and organising talks and demonstrations to highlight the benefits of an unfairly underestimated crop.

“The broad bean could do so much good for people in this country if they could be persuaded to eat it,” she says. “And that’s my mission. To make the country love the broad bean.”

Broad beans were first cultivated in the Middle East, but have been grown in Britain since the Iron Age. Around 740,000 tonnes are harvested each year from around 170,000 hectares of land in the UK.

“But a large proportion of that harvest is used for animal feed, while a large proportion of the rest is exported to Egypt, where it is used, instead of chickpeas, to make falafel,” added Mohd-Radzman, a researcher at Sainsbury’s Laboratory in Cambridge. “We should be using it ourselves.”

Nor is Mohd-Radzman’s broad bean campaign the only attempt to get Britons to eat more beans. Vicia fabaScientists from the University of Reading recently suggested that Britain should switch to eating bread made with wheat, as the end product would be more sustainable and also make it easier to provide people with important nutrients.

But it’s the ingredient levodopa, or L-dopa, that’s of particular interest to Mohd-Radzman, who also works at the Entrepreneurship Lab at King’s College Cambridge. It’s used in the clinical treatment of people with Parkinson’s disease – and fava beans contain high levels of the compound.

“The crucial point is that L-dopa has been shown to be very effective in treating a condition known as anhedonia, which is essentially the inability to feel or experience pleasure. And that’s why I believe the fava bean is important.

“We have a huge problem with the growing number of young people with mental health problems in the UK today, and helping them to eat a good, healthy diet is crucial to tackling this. The broad bean will be our first line of attack.”

Together with the William Templeton Foundation for Young People’s Mental Health, Mohd-Radzman has focused on finding cheap and accessible ways to improve diets. “The broad bean is cheap and accessible and has known benefits, so that’s why I promote it in talks and demonstrations.”

The broad bean, however, has a turbulent history. It is also known as the fava bean, and under this name it was associated with death and decay by the ancient Greeks. The mathematician and philosopher Pythagoras ordered his followers not to eat them.

One reason for this unpopularity is that eating fava beans can cause a disease called favism in a small number of vulnerable people in Mediterranean countries and the Middle East. These individuals can develop a blood disorder known as hemolytic anemia.

“That’s obviously an issue that needs to be looked at,” Mohd-Radzman said. “One solution is to find varieties of fava beans that have low levels of the chemicals that cause favism in susceptible people. The real solution, however, is to create versions that are genetically edited using Crispr technology and that do not have traces of the chemicals that cause favism – and that’s what we’ve started to do.”

Meanwhile, Mohd-Radzman continues to find more and more ways to incorporate fava beans into our diets. “You can make milk out of them. You can fry them with salt. You can even ferment them with chili to make a paste like kimchi. You can make salads with them or mix them with chorizo. You can do all sorts of things with fava beans. They’re incredibly adaptable.”