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(HealthNewsDigest.com) – Whether you call them pulses, legumes or just beans, the 68th UN General Assembly has declared 2016 as the year to focus on bean crops as part of a worldwide sustainable food system which promotes food security and enhances nutrition for many people around the world.
Beans are a humble, forgotten vegetable, often considered a poor man’s meat or a vegetarian staple. For most of us they are only an occasional food – a side order of beans and rice, chickpeas scattered on a salad, or a bowl of split pea soup on a cold day. Many people are even surprised that beans are actually a vegetable because they seem to straddle more than one food group – vegetable, protein and carbohydrate.
That combination is exactly why beans qualify as a nutrition superstar. They are high in protein, like meat, fish, poultry and eggs, while being packed with vitamins, minerals and phytochemicals like their vegetable cousins. Add to that a rich complement of complex carbohydrates and fiber, while at the same time being low in fat and sodium, and cholesterol-free.
For every 1-ounce of beans you eat each day, you reduce your risk of dying by 8%. Sounds crazy you say? Maybe, but it is true. Researchers looked at people aged 70 and older who lived the longest in Japan, Sweden, Greece and Australia. No other food, by itself, predicted a long life across all these groups except beans.
A 1-cup serving of beans provides only 12% of your daily calories while offering more than 50% of your daily fiber requirement, over 33% of your needed protein, almost 70% of folic acid, over 25% of your iron need with no cholesterol and little fat. Beans are a bargain from a nutrient standpoint but they are also one of your least costly protein foods.
Beans belong to a family of plants called legumes or pulses. They are all similar in nutritional value but come in different shapes.
- Oval or kidney shaped = beans
- Round = peas
- Flat, disk-like = lentils
To help you estimate how many beans to cook, you should know:
- 1 pound dry beans = 6 cups cooked beans
- 1 pound dry beans = 2 cups uncooked beans
- 1 can (15 ounce) beans = 1 ½ cups cooked beans
- ½ cup of beans equals 1 serving
Like vegetables, all beans are good for you, high in fiber, protein, iron and folic acid as well as providing a healthy amount of many other nutrients. In addition all are excellent sources of phytochemicals. Eating a wide variety is the smartest thing to do.
- Put some kidney beans in your salad
- Serve bean dip instead of cheese dip
- Eat hummus (made of chickpeas)
- Munch on soy nuts or edamame
- Order split pea soup
- Try refried beans or rice and beans
- Eat baked beans
- Make recipes with tofu (made from soybeans)
- Add beans to sloppy joes, casseroles, soups, chili and stews
- Add beans to your favorite salsa
- Serve beans, scrambled eggs and salsa in a tortilla for breakfast
Dried beans can be cooked in batches and frozen for future use. When you don’t have time to cook, canned beans are a great alternative. Though high in sodium, if you drain and rinse canned beans before you eat them or add them to a recipe, you can reduce the sodium content by at least 40%. Also, look for frozen cooked dry beans. They are becoming more and more available and are as low in sodium as the dry variety.
You Should Know: Peanuts, fresh green peas, and fresh lima beans belong to the bean category,too. Peas for dinner and a peanut butter sandwich count as a serving of beans.
© NRH Nutrition Consultants, Inc.
Jo-Ann Heslin, MA, RD, CDN is a registered dietitian and the author of 30 books. Available as eBooks from iTunes and Kindle/Amazon:
Diabetes Counter
Calorie Counter
Protein Counter
Healthy Wholefoods Counter
Complete Food Counter
Fat and Cholesterol Counter
Available in print from Gallery Books:
Most Complete Food Counter, 3rd Ed.
Your Complete Food Counter App: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/your-complete-food-counter/id444558777?mt=8
For more information on Jo-Ann and her books, go to: www.TheNutritionExperts.com.
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