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The 5 main food groups

Legumes are a food family of considerable nutritional importance. Because of their high vegetable protein content, they are often used to substitute meat or dairy products (animal proteins) in the diet.

The following foods belong to the legume family:

— Beans, peas, chick peas, lentils, broad beans (fava beans), green beans. 

— Soy, azuki: two types of legumes that are often used in oriental and macrobiotic cooking.

— Peanuts, tamarind, licorice.

— Carob, guar (the flour is used as an additive in many industrial food preparations).

In the case of an intolerance to legumes identified by a DRIA test, the foods that are derived from them or contain them must also be restricted, for example:

— Farinata (Italian chick-pea pizza) and some typical Tuscan and Ligurian dishes (with a chick-pea base).

— Peanut oil, soy oil

— Soy milk, soy sauce, soy bread (see the Soy lecithin and soy food profile).

— Products with a vegetable protein base: tofu (soy cheese), hamburger, seitan, meatballs, stew meat, wieners and practically all types of vegetable “meat”, usually prepared with soy fiber.

— Macrobiotic and oriental foods: in addition to soy sauce, also tamari, miso, tempeh and many other oriental foods contain large quantities of soy. Soy is also contained in “kokkoh” flour.

— Fried foods: when the type of oil used for frying is unknown.

Keep in mind the fact that single seed oils, (among which soy, sunflower, corn, peanut, safflower, grape-seed...) compared to mixed seed oils or those with the description “vegetable fats” (without further details) are usually more trustworthy, even though you can’t entirely exclude the possibility that the oil might contain residues from other seed mixtures.

The description “cold-pressed” gives a better guarantee that the oil was made from a single seed and that the nutritional quality of the oil is higher (cold-pressing preserves a good part of the seed’s vitamin content - most of all vitamin E - and particularly polyunsaturated fatty acids, linolenic Omega-3 and linoleic Omega-6 in their proper ratio).

In most cases, a doctor will find it necessary to exclude Hydrogenated vegetable fats (see profile) from the rotational diet as well. These substances are generally made from industrially produced oils that are also extracted from legumes (soy and peanut in particular). If no specific reference is made, it isn’t necessary to eliminate these substances.

Many alternative recipes can be found, together with instructions for rotational diets, in the books by Dr Attilio Speciani “Le allergie: cause, diagnosi, terapie” [Allergies: Causes, diagnosis, therapies] (with Marina Speciani Necchi), “Resistere all’inquinamento” [Surviving pollution] and “Superare le intolleranze alimentari” [Overcoming food intolerances] (with Francesca Speciani), all published by Tecniche Nuove, Milan.

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© This food profile is copyright of SMA Srl Servizi Medici Associati, Via Ariosto 28, 20145 Milan, This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it . Health director: Dr Attilio Speciani, M.D., Clinical allergist and immunologist. This material may not be used or reproduced without the publisher’s permission.

Italian version