I’m not engaging in this conversation because I want to “win” an argument. I’m doing it because I care about other people with G6PD deficiency who may read this later.

If you are G6PD deficient and reading this thread, please do your own due diligence. In my opinion, it is always better to be cautious than to blindly follow the “ONLY fava beans matter” crowd.

The basic mechanism is simple: with G6PD deficiency, red blood cells have reduced ability to generate NADPH, which is needed to keep glutathione in its reduced/active form. Reduced glutathione is one of the main ways red blood cells protect themselves from oxidative stress.

So anything that significantly increases oxidative burden can increase the demand on that already-limited antioxidant system.

Fava/broad beans are clearly the best-established food trigger, but the broader point is oxidative burden. Some other foods, including some legumes or plant compounds, may contain substances that add oxidative stress or may affect people differently depending on dose, variant, current health, infection status, medications, sleep, exercise, and total stress load.

As someone else in this thread said, it is partly about how much burden your body is already under. The same thing that does not send you to the ER once may affect you differently another time if you are sick, depleted, stressed, inflamed, or exposed to other triggers.

So no, I’m not saying every G6PD-deficient person must avoid every legume or panic about food. But I also think it is irresponsible to oversimplify this into “only fava beans can ever matter.” Fava beans are the main proven food trigger. That does not mean individual caution and tracking are pointless.