Why combination of beans, fried ripe plantain is considered unhealthy - Experts

No doubt, beans and fried plantain, popularly referred to as ‘dodo’ is one delicious meal every average Nigerian loves to eat. The combination of these foods is one that leaves you longing for more.

However, the feeling of sweetness or how delicious a meal is doesn’t make it healthy for you.

When food is properly combined, every organ in the body enjoys it. However, if food Is wrongly combined, some health abnormalities arise. The liver is often the first hit and in some cases, it could lead to death or serious Illnesses occurs.

Pius a popular tweeter user with the Twitter handle @prof_pius had through his tweeter page explained why the combination of fried plantain and beans may not be healthy.

According to him, cooking food like beans with unripe plantain has no problems, he said this combination in fact is a perfect combo which makes digestion easy.

However, the same plantain, when it ripes becomes the fruit, he added.

“So, Fire turns the plantains’ sweetness, known as fructose to acidity. Not just acidic, but it’s highly acidic. When fruits are damaged by fire, they become poison to the body. Who suffers? The Liver!

“Here is the problem. Beans take between five to seven hours to digest properly and leave the stomach. While ripe plantains take just three hours
No fruit is digested in the stomach. But In the terminal Ileum. While beans digest In the stomach.

“Ripe plantain doesn’t need a pancreatic enzyme to digest. While beans do.
So when they are combined, the ripe plantain tries to leave the stomach to travel to the terminal Ileum where It digests but the beans won’t allow it. This struggle goes on for a long which is unknown to you. Then, fermentation takes place,” Pius explained.

He therefore referred to the combination of beans and ripe Plantain as ‘Delicious Poison’.

Kemi Lopsam, a natural health doctor and an acupuncturist based in Akure, first spoke about this in 2019 on a website called Newsroom. According to Lopsam, “cooking food like beans with unripe plantains has no problems. It is a perfect combination that makes digestion easy.” But cooking beans with ripe plantains is unhealthy.

She explained that heat turns fructose into acid, and many diseases stem from acidity. Acid-forming foods are unhealthy and dangerous and can cause heart problems, ulcers, and gastrointestinal reflux.

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha

Ifeoma Okeke-Korieocha is the Aviation Correspondent at BusinessDay Media Limited, publishers of BusinessDay Newspapers. She is also the Deputy Editor, BusinessDay Weekender Magazine, the Saturday Weekend edition of BusinessDay. She holds a BSC in Mass Communication from the prestigious University of Nigeria, Nsukka and a Masters degree in Marketing at the University of Lagos. As the lead writer on the aviation desk, Ifeoma is responsible and in charge of the three weekly aviation and travel pages in BusinessDay and BDSunday. She also overseas and edits all pages of BusinessDay Saturday Weekender. She has written various investigative, features and news stories in aviation and business related issues and has been severally nominated for award in the category of Aviation Writer of the Year by the Nigeria Media Nite-Out awards; one of the Nigeria’s most prestigious media awards ceremonies. Ifeoma is a one-time winner of the prestigious Nigeria Media Merit Award under the 'Aviation Writer of the Year' Category. She is the 2025 Eloy Award winner under the Print Media Journalist category. She has undergone several journalism trainings by various prestigious organisations. Ifeoma is also a fellow of the Female Reporters Leadership Fellowship of the Wole Soyinka Centre for Investigative Journalism.