Diet Blog

Bean is one of the cheapest foods we can get nowadays. However, not many people know beans can do more than filling their stomach. The fiber inside beans can clean your colon and strengthen your heart. Beans are low in calories and high in protein and iron, which can promote weight lost and help build muscle. Because of these benefit, beans is consider as on of the power 12 of the Abs diet

Nutrition value of beans

Beans are an important part of the everyday diet. They are a great source of complex carbohydrates that include starch and dietary fiber. You find indigestible sugars in beans that are a source of energy for you in your diet. In addition to this, you find insoluble cellulose and lignin in the covering of the seed, along with pectins and soluble gums in the bean. Beans are a great source of proteins that are found as methionine and cystine, and a great source of iron and folate.
It is not advisable to eat beans raw as they have antinutrient chemicals that only inactivate the enzymes that are needed to digest carbohydrates and proteins. Raw beans also inactivate vitamin A in the body, and hemaglutinins that are needed for the clumping of red blood cells. However, with its cooking, all the enzyme inhibitors and anti-vitamin A factors are eliminated. However, a negligible amount of the hemaglutinins remains but has not much of an effect on the body.

Brown rice and beans make a perfect side dish

When adding beans to the diet, it is better to serve it with grains as grains don’t have essential amino acids beans have. So together, beans and grains make a complete meal. Beans can also be served with iron rich food like meat or with vitamin C rich food like tomatoes. This is because both these foods enhance the absorption of iron in the beans.
On cooking beans, you will find that the cells of the beans absorb the water they are cooked in. This in turn ruptures the beans to release the pectins, gums and nutrients in the body. Though canning of beans may destroy the vitamin B found in beans, it can be recovered in the liquid of the can. However, this liquid has indigestible sugars that may cause intestinal gas from beans.

Other benefit of eating beans

Introducing beans in the diet of pregnant women lowers the risk of birth defects in the baby. This is because of the folate found in the beans. This is the main reason why pregnant women are advised to take a folate supplement through the first two months of pregnancy to reduce the chance of any neural tube defects. Regular consumption of beans in the diet also lowers the risk of heart attack by 50%.
The levels of serum cholesterol in the blood are reduced with the addition of beans in your diet. This is because of the gums and pectins found in the beans. Beans are a safe form of carbohydrates for diabetics as they are digested slowly and thus produce only a gradual increase in the blood sugar levels. With this, the body uses less insulin to control blood sugar after eating beans.
Beans are generally low in calories and they provide lots of fiber and are thus great as a diet food. This is because a small serving makes you full and being insulin sparing, insulin rises slowly to keep you feeling full for quite some time. So it can be seen that beans are in deed beneficial and nutritious and have to be included in the diet.