Beans really are good for your heart. In a study of more than 1000 mostly middle-aged people, those who ate at least a serving a day (about a three-fourths cup) of beans, lentils, peas, or chickpeas had levels of LDL or ‘bad’ cholesterol that averaged 5% less than those who didn’t eat beans. When you reduce your LDL cholesterol by 5%, you reduce your risk of death by heart attack by the same amount.
Source: Canadian Medical Association Journal
Beans are super flexible and super moderate foods. Beans are high in cancer prevention agents (antioxidants), fiber, protein, B vitamins, magnesium, potassium, copper, and zinc. Eating beans frequently may help diminish the dangers of diabetes, coronary illness, cancer growth, and assists with weight loss administration. Beans are healthy foods that contain low calories which helps you feel full so you will have a tendency to eat less, which is very good for those trying to lose weight.
Older people usually require fewer calories and beans are very suitable for them. It is an awesome method that can be used to support their nourishment energy levels without boosting calories. A half-measure of beans has just around 100 calories.
What Beans Can Do for You
There are various types of beans and all of them are very beneficial to the body. Some of the common types of beans are kidney beans, white beans, brown beans, red beans, iron beans, chickpeas, soybeans, lentils, among others.
1. Adding beans to your daily diet a few times a week would diminish the danger of colorectal adenomas (polps), which may bring down the danger of colorectal growth (cancer).
2. Eating beans frequently may also bring down the danger of coronary illnesses and type 2 diabetes. Specialists found that by consuming beans, especially soybeans, the risk of having type 2 diabetes was greatly reduced. The more beans you eat, the lower your risk of getting type 2 diabetes.
3. Beans are healthy alternatives to other options of high-fat protein sources like red meat. It was observed that people who ate peanuts and nutty spreads had a lower risk of having type 2 diabetes, cancer, obesity, heart diseases among others. Peanuts, which also viewed as a type of bean, are also high in sound fats, magnesium, and fiber.
What You Can Do With Beans
There are various ways to eat beans. Over time, I will be sharing with you the various recipes available for preparing beans in a variety of ways. For now, let us just look at the various types of meals we can make using beans;
1. To use canned beans, flush them before utilizing to evacuate a portion of the additional sodium present in the can. Canned beans usually contain a cloudy liquid which contains mostly starch and salt. Flushing simply means draining and rinsing the beans to remove the excess salt and starch present in the can to improve its flavor before use. Draining and rinsing the beans also helps remove the metallic flavor sometimes found in canned beans.
After flushing, you may heat it up (if you wish) and use as a side dish or in your salad
2. Beans can be used to make beans cake (Akara)
3. Beans can be used for beans pudding (MoiMoi)
4. Beans can be boiled with rice to make rice and beans which can be eaten with stew, sauce or as jollof
5. Beans can be prepared with fresh corn or dry corn, depending on your choice. I prefer it with fresh corn
6. Beans can be prepared with yam and can be eaten with stew, sauce or as jollof
7. Soya beans can be used to make soya milk
8. Beans can be pre-boiled, dried and grounded for infant feeding
9. Beans can be prepared with plantain and can be eaten with stew or sauce or as jollof
10. Beans can simply be boiled alone to be eaten with stew, sauce or as jollof
- Beans can be prepared and eaten with bread
12. Beans can be prepared and eaten with garri (cassava granules). The cassava granules can be soaked separately in water in a different bowl, or it can be poured directly on the beans and stirred together (A little at a time).
Please feel free to share your favorite beans recipe(s) with me. Also, please feel free to comment below, share, like my page and don’t forget to subscribe for more posts!
