When a woman gets pregnant, the hCG hormone (Human chorionic gonadotropin) begins to be produced in large amounts. This hormone is responsible for keeping the baby from misscarrying, so it's actually a good thing even though it is accompanied by nausea. Why does hCG make pregnant women nauseous? This hormone causes the liver to secrete more bile, and it is that excess bile that creates the symptoms of nausea.
It has been found that if a pregnant woman eats beans while suffering from morning sickness the high fiber content of the beans binds to the extra bile and removes it from the system, causing her to be less nauseous or even not nauseous at all. Bliss at last! The good news is that even though the nausea is relieved, the beneficial pregnancy-maintaining properties of hCG are not affected by consumption of beans.
To learn more about this creative morning sickness alieviation trick, read what one mother wrote about her experience on her blog Life In A Shoe. For a more technical understanding of why it works, read this page on Karen Hurd's Nutritional Practice.
With this understanding in mind, here is a healthy recipe for "black bean brownies"! (Give them a try--they're actually not all that bad, especially when you're eating beans every couple of hours all day long :).)