Thrive Cooking with Amy: Why Beans are so Important to Having a Healthy Diet

Our diets are loaded with unhealthy nutrient deficient foods. And we are so confused about what to eat! Mixed messages abound and confusion about eating healthy continues to increase. This has been my problem for so long! I am truly studying eating habits and food to get to the answers I need to live healthy. On answer is certain...beans are a necessary part of a healthy diet. I hear many arguments about eating beans. They are high in fat and starch...They don't taste good...I can get my protein from meat...and on and on. Ok. This is what I know to be true....

Enter the bean. A perfect food, actually. Beans contain both soluble and insoluble fiber. This means that they scrub your insides really well. They clean out your digestive tract ( I always think of the line from Beverly Hills cop when the two cops are sitting in car and Eddie Murphy is putting the banana in the tail pipe. The younger cop says to the older one, "Did you know the average American has five pounds of undigested red meat in their intestines?" We use this line regularly!), scrub your arteries removing unwanted fats and build-ups thus REVERSING the main cause of stoke and heart attacks. Hmmm...

Beans are very high in resistant starch. Resistant starch is being proven as very desirable in our diets. Although technically deemed a 'starch', it acts more like fiber during digestion. Typically starches found in carb rich foods break down into glucose during digestion which is used as energy or stored as fat. Resistant starch 'resists' digestion and passes through the small intestines without being digested. Researchers are classifying this as a third type of fiber as studies continue. So a significant amount of the carb calories being listed for beans is not absorbed.

Because of this feature in beans they:

Aid weight loss
Aid digestive health
Help prevent constipation
Help maintain lower blood sugar levels
Reduce the risk of developing diabetes
Reduce the risk of heart attack
Reduce the risk of colon cancer

A Super Food!

As far as taste, as with trying anything new, give it a chance. There is nothing more delicious than a bean still warm from cooking. Vary the beans you use, don't just stick to one. You will get bored the same as if you ate the exact same kind of apple day in and day out. Boring! There are so many to choose from! I just found Cranberry Beans and am having a love affair with them! It is so fun to try new things!

Beans also take on spices and seasoning especially well. They absorb the flavors and taste super yummy with an endless variety of flavors. They are so adaptable.

I remember years ago I was making a salad for a party and a friend added plain beans to the top. I had never seen anyone add or eat beans plain like that. I didn't want to eat the yummy salad I had made. But after a gentle encoouragement I found it to be so delicious and filling! Now almost all my salads include beans.

I eat them as my meat replacement. I am NOT a vegetarian, nor could I be if I wanted to. I married a hunter!! But even we have cut way back on our meat consumption. We have replaced meat with beans in our tacos, enchiladas, sloppy joes, burgers, and throw beans into so many other dishes.

Even my 'hunter' husband says he feels so much better. It is amazing!

It is recommended that we shoud eat at least 1 cup of beans EVERY DAY unless you eat a meat dish. Although adding beans adds nutrition. I won't go into why you should consider cutting back on meat consumption. Just remember: Beans are more than yummy, they could actually save your life and keep you free of disease!

EAT BEANS!