A friend and I planned to make fava bean salad for a Parkinsons Disease
Association picnic. After reading Robert Fink's references on favism, we
wondered if ONE taste could cause favism in people with the susceptibility.
According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, it might:
"FAVISM, a hereditary disorder involving an allergic-like reaction to the
broad bean (vicia fava). Susceptible persons may develop a blood disorder
(hemolytic anemia) by eating the bean, or even by walking through a field
where the plants are in flower.
The known distribution of the disease is largely limited to people of
Mediterranean origin (Spaniards, Italians, Greeks, Armenians, and Jews).
Susceptibility to favism is inherited as a sex-linked trait and appears to
be closely related to glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency (q.v.)."
We have decided to serve a harmless green salad at the picnic.
[log in to unmask] (Sara Thomas)
