Is swallowing a mouthful of black beans bad?

In general, not chewing your food isn't the best idea. It won't kill you, it won't give you some terrible disease, but it's not particularly healthy. Your digestive system, powerful as it is, appreciates thorough chewing to help it. read more

Well, you're not going to get whatever supposed benefit you think you'll get from eating black beans. Beans are covered with a tough skin made of cellulose. People -- not being termites -- don't have the gut flora to digest cellulose. read more

Cook your beans thoroughly. The best way to avoid food poisoning from beans is to ensure they are cooked thoroughly. Each bean takes a different amount of time to cook, so read the back of the package. You can choose to boil them or cook them in a pressure cooker. Beans should be soft and tender when they're done. read more

Stale beans - beans that have sat on a shelf for 6 -18 months - get tough, and no matter how long you boil them, they stay tough. So best bet is to find a store where they sell beans in bulk, and where the customers eat beans daily - a Hispanic grocery store for example. read more

The taste, mealy interior texture of the inside of the bean, and the cooked outer casing of the bean all are very distasteful to me, so if consuming dried beans is safe then perhaps I could swallow enough to give me some energy during the day. 2. read more