Could this be the perfect food?

Ok, I know there isn’t a PERFECT food. In fact, variety is one of the keys to optimized health. BUT I think this food is pretty close and something you should consider adding to your meals. It is high in fiber, low fat, inexpensive, high in plant based protein, an excellent source of iron, magnesium and zinc, contains folic acid AND antioxidants! Imagine getting all that in one food. If this was a nutrition supplement with a large marketing budget it would be flying off the shelves. People would be lining up for this.

Any guesses? It’s BEANS! Adding beans to your meals can be as easy as opening a can of beans, rinsing them off and tossing them on a salad. Research shows eating beans lowers LDL cholesterol levels and it can contribute to the prevention of cardiovascular disease. Using results of the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2002, people who consumed beans had lower body weight, smaller waist size, and reduced risk of obesity compared to people that didn’t eat beans.

Here are 5 easy ways to add beans to your meals:

  1. Make a quick and easy bean salad by tossing mixed beans with a little olive oil, vinegar and fresh or dried herbs.

  2. Add Great Northern beans to a pasta dish to increase the fiber and protein content.

  3. Beans can usually be added to just about any type of soup but they are especially good in a hearty vegetable soup.

  4. Roasted garbanzo beans tossed with olive oil and a little smoked paprika is a delicious easy snack.

  5. Dip baby carrots and celery sticks into hummus or a white bean dip.

Of course any discussion about beans (the musical fruit!) always includes the digestive issues some people have with beans and why they avoid eating them. Beans do contain high amounts of fiber and starches. These cannot be completely digested by our enzymes so the bacteria in our gut helps to break them down. The result of this process is digestive discomfort including bloating and flatulence (gas). From a health perspective, this is a good thing. The beans are ‘feeding’ the good bacteria in our gut. From a social perspective, not so much. However, there are several strategies you can employ to reduce the digestive discomfort.

Four ways to reduce discomfort from eating beans:

  1. Start by eating only 2-4 tablespoons of beans/day. Every day gradually increase this amount until you are eating 1/2 cup per day. This is a serving size for beans.

  2. As you introduce beans into your diet make sure you increase your water intake. Anytime you increase your fiber intake it is important to increase your water intake to help with digestion.

  3. Rinse canned beans thoroughly. This will help remove some of the discomfort causing compounds.

  4. Consider using a gas reducing enzyme. These can be purchased at most pharmacies and large grocery stores. They are the same enzyme our body naturally produces.

Research has shown with daily bean consumption, the digestive discomfort will decrease for most people over a few weeks. After these initial few weeks, as long as the bean consumption is continued, digestive discomfort should not be an issue. Although there are a few weeks of discomfort as your body adjust to this new food, the many nutritional benefits of beans in the diet outweighs the potential for temporary discomfort. If you were offered a drug that was cheap, lowered LDL cholesterol, decreased your risk for cardiovascular disease, was associated with lower body weight, smaller waist size and a reduced risk of obesity but its major side effect was a few weeks of digestive discomfort… would you take it? As long as you keep eating beans, the benefits can continue for a lifetime.

References

  1. Vieira NM, Peghinelli VV, Monte MG, Costa NA, Pereira AG, Seki MM, Azevedo PS, Polegato BF, de Paiva SAR, Zornoff LAM, Minicucci MF. Beans comsumption can contribute to the prevention of cardiovascular disease. Clin Nutr ESPEN. 2023 Apr;54:73-80. doi: 10.1016/j.clnesp.2023.01.007. Epub 2023 Jan 12. PMID: 36963901.

  2. Doma KM, Dolinar KF, Dan Ramdath D, Wolever TMS, Duncan AM. Canned Beans Decrease Serum Total and LDL Cholesterol in Adults with Elevated LDL Cholesterol in a 4-wk Multicenter, Randomized, Crossover Study. J Nutr. 2021 Dec 3;151(12):3701-3709. doi: 10.1093/jn/nxab323. PMID: 34642756.

  3. Papanikolaou Y, Fulgoni VL 3rd. Bean consumption is associated with greater nutrient intake, reduced systolic blood pressure, lower body weight, and a smaller waist circumference in adults: results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2002. J Am Coll Nutr. 2008 Oct;27(5):569-76. doi: 10.1080/07315724.2008.10719740. PMID: 18845707.

  4. Winham DM, Hutchins AM. Perceptions of flatulence from bean consumption among adults in 3 feeding studies. Nutr J. 2011 Nov 21;10:128. doi: 10.1186/1475-2891-10-128. PMID: 22104320; PMCID: PMC3228670.

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