The Initiation
“There exists, in farmers’ markets and well-lit kitchen corners across the land, a secret society. They carry tote bags. They ask questions. They have opinions about beans and lentils that you didn’t ask for. They are… The Leguminatis.”
The science behind the song
"The Initiation" opens the album by introducing the society and its rituals: quiz nights every second Monday, a group chat that nobody ever leaves, a three-hour investigation into nutritional yeast (they call it nooch), and a standing debate about whether oats are really gluten free. It's warm, conspiratorial, and slightly self-righteous, which is, by the song's own admission, the whole point.
Underneath the comedy, the song touches on something nutritionally real. Nutritional yeast earns its place in the Leguminatis pantry for a practical reason: most fortified brands are a reliable source of vitamin B12, a nutrient that isn't reliably present in plant foods and one that people following a whole-food plant-based diet need to source from fortified foods or a supplement. The hummus, meanwhile, is built on one of the oldest domesticated crops in human agriculture: chickpeas, cultivated for more than 7,500 years, first grown in the Fertile Crescent, and valued for their protein, fibre, and ability to store well across seasons.
The closing line, "we were here before the oat milk," is funnier if you know that legumes were among the earliest cultivated food crops, predating the current wave of plant-based products by several thousand years.
Key terms
Vitamin B12 (cobalamin). An essential vitamin involved in nerve function, red blood cell formation, and DNA synthesis. B12 is often described as an "animal-food nutrient," but biologically it is microbial. It is produced by microorganisms in soil, not by plants or animals themselves. Animals obtain or accumulate it through microbial activity, feed, or supplementation. Due to modern agricultural practices and soil depletion, B12 is no longer found reliably even in animal-derived foods without intervention: ruminants such as cows and sheep are often given cobalt (which gut microbes use to synthesise B12) in their feed, and pigs and poultry routinely receive B12-fortified feed. In plant-based diets, the practical solution is simpler and more direct: use fortified foods and drinks, such as nutritional yeast, non-dairy drinks, and breakfast cereals, or take a regular B12 supplement. Deficiency can develop gradually and affect neurological function.
Fortification. The process of adding nutrients to a food product that would not naturally contain them, or not in sufficient quantities. Nutritional yeast, for example, is often fortified with B vitamins including B12, making it a practical dietary source for people who do not eat animal products.
The Initiation Quiz
Every Leguminatis member completes the quiz. Ten questions, drawn from across the album. Get them all right and consider yourself fully initiated.