This is the first Super Food in our big series on foods you should eat more of.
When I was a child all the way through to somewhere in college, I really disliked beans. Chili was always on my “don’t eat it” list, and I never did refried beans. I’m not sure what happened to my tastebuds – or most likely my texture sensors – but I’ve grown to love them. The more I learn about beans (the legume kind – kidney, pinto, black, lentil, etc.), the more I find to love. My family tries to include beans in at least one meal a week.
My Changing World of Beans
When I was pregnant with my first child, I ate more beans because of the protein and iron content. After a friend of mine went to a nutritionist for PCOS, she learned some information that really got me to appreciate beans. You can always find someone who says there’s something in there that you shouldn’t be eating, but beans have a pretty clean rapsheet. Almost everyone says they’re good for you, and I concur!
This Food for Thought will give you the briefest overview possible of why I’m going to recommend you eat more beans. Read it if you want, or just skip to the Monday Mission to get practical ideas for MORE BEANS.
Nutrition of Beans
Beans will give you the following nutritional benefits:
- Protein (1/2 cup = 7-8 g, 15% RDA, best if eaten with whole grains to form a complete protein)
- Fiber (best if long soaked and long cooked)
- Iron (1/5 RDA, eat with vitamin C to increase absorption)
- Zinc
- Vitamins B1, B6
- Folic acid (HALF recommended daily amount in ½ cup)
- magnesium, copper
- antioxidants
- omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids
All those nutrients can improve your health:
- lower LDL (bad) cholesterol
- reduce risk of heart disease
- improve digestion/reduce constipation
- low glycemic index = good for diabetics
- fills you up longer = good for dieters
- reduce risk of cancer
- folic acid is especially important in pregnancy for healthy babies!
This is a serious list. If you are pregnant or might become so, diabetic, pre-diabetic, or it runs in your family, have a family history of heart disease or high LDL cholesterol, want to lose weight, have digestive issues, or are just poor and want healthy food…EAT MORE BEANS!
Beans, Beans, Beans
Are you curious about the info from my friend’s nutritionist that really convinced me to include beans more often? First, I’ll tell you that the diet my friend was put on was pretty strict: no sugar or carbs of any kind, no caffeine, 7 servings of veggies, 5 of protein every day…and beans 3 times a day, once at each meal. Three times a day! That’s beans and eggs for breakfast, beans on a salad at lunch, beans in SOMEthing at dinner…every day. Phew. That’s a lot of beans.
Why Beans?
The nutritionist explained that my friend’s body was stressed, and that’s why she wasn’t ovulating. Her analogy: If your mother was sick with cancer, what would you do? You would drop everything and help take care of her. Even though you’re not sick, you’ll have a lot of stress. It’s the same thing in the body – if adrenal/pituitary glands are under stress and over producing, your ovaries don’t ovulate. You must get your body to stop freaking out. She needed to put her system into complete rest mode: no sugar, no carbs, no caffeine, because all those things make your body work harder and stimulate your adrenal glands.
There are a lot of impurities that our bodies encounter every day that stress out our system. The job of the liver, of course, is to clean out impurities in the blood. The bile in the liver, however, can only take so much. To maintain it and clean out the bile so it’s not saturated with “junk”, beans will do the job. The beans take the impurities out of the bile in your liver and carry them out of your body. Think of beans as the janitorial crew, worthy of a “Dirty Jobs” episode to be sure.
That’s why the nutritionist starts out her patients with beans three times a day, for major spring cleaning, then as the system starts to regulate, you can level off.
Incredible. Beans are cool. Beans are cheap. Beans do a lot of good for the body. Do move on to the Monday Mission to learn how to prepare and serve beans in delicious ways, including Homemade Refried Beans.
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Looking for other Food for Thought?
- Antibacterial Soap
- Supermarkets waste of food
- America’s Food Waste
- Energy Use
- Menu Planning
- Plastic Safety
We don’t eat beans as often as we should. You’re right though: they offer a fantastic nutritional profile. And soaking resolves the phytic acid issue. We like lentils too.
[Reply to this comment]
Great post! We love beans (I’m partial to black and kidney these days – and, of course, lentils) in chili’s and soups (and I will admit to LOVING refried beans with breakfast. I know, I’m weird) but I especially love them in the summertime mixed up with a salad. My aunt’s three bean salad is legendary (it includes green beans) as is my lentil salad and a Southwestern style salad with black beans, corn, etc. YUM!
And then, of course, there’s hummus, which my husband can eat by the gallon, it seems!
Thank you for the insight on all of it’s great nutrients! I knew that they were good for us, but there is more to them than I thought!
Best,
Sarah
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I’ve pretty much switched to making all my beans from dry beans… Since they take so long to cook… do you ever make large batches and refrigerate or freeze them? Does that work with beans?
Also, do you know of any ways to reduce the gaseous aftermath of beans??
I’ve been soaking mine for 24 hours in water with several tablespoons of whey. I cook for at least 4 hours, more if I have time.
This week I am sprouting my beans to see if that makes any difference, but I won’t know until Thursday night when I make chili.
Love to know if you have any tips in those areas!
[Reply to this comment]
Katie Reply:
June 23rd, 2009 at 2:45 pm
Sarah,
Good questions. I thought I addressed the freezing of beans in my Monday Mission post that week, but I didn’t. I edited the info in: http://www.kitchenstewardship.com/2009/04/06/monday-mission-legume-recommend-some-beans/ (Yes, you can freeze them!)
As far as flatulence goes, pouring off the soak water (even doing it twice, once halfway through the soak) is supposed to help, as is a spice (herb?) called epazote. It’s common in Mexican cooking, although I don’t see it a lot around here. It was recommended to me at my fav spice store, Penzey’s, when I was shopping for my friend on the bean diet (mentioned above).
I sprouted beans once, but I don’t remember if that helped with gas or not. It’s much healthier, and so easy. I just haven’t been thinking about doing it lately. Let us know after Thursday night!
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Hi Katie
With reference to your statement “As far as flatulence goes, pouring off the soak water (even doing it twice, once halfway through the soak)…”
Should we add the acid medium again when we pour off the first soak and add water for the second soak? Should the water be warm?
Tks
[Reply to this comment]
Katie Reply:
August 19th, 2009 at 10:57 pm
Good questions! I haven’t actually taken the time to pour off water and re-do to reduce flatulence (ha!), but I imagine you’d want the acid medium still in there for the second soak. I always forget if the water has to be warm to soak beans, so I don’t know that it matters. I think I do read that bean soak water should be warm (I’m just to lazy to heat it and don’t like using warm tap water b/c of metal leaching.)
[Reply to this comment]
Sarah W Reply:
August 20th, 2009 at 10:26 am
FWIW, I poured off the soak water one time for this most recent batch of beans, and I “re-added” whey to the soak water. I even warmed it up a little bit (in the pot on the stove). I figure the warmth helps the little bacteria do their job during the soak process. Hopefully I’ll notice the results after dinner tonight!!
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I just made a crock pot full of navy beans – yum! Is there a use for the leftover cooking water? Seems like an odd question, but after learning how much whey I have wasted over the years I’d hate to find out that there is a good use for bean cooking water, too!
[Reply to this comment]
Katie Reply:
September 20th, 2011 at 2:06 am
Lindsey,
Katie
If a recipe calls for vegetable broth, you can toss carrots, onions, celery and garlic into the bean pot for the last hour and you’ve got a rich veggie broth. I also use the bean broth in place of water in recipes where it will disappear like chili. But 80% of the time, I just have to pitch it b/c I couldn’t possibly save it all and use it.
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