Healthy Diet - FOOD PRESCRIPTION #9 - Fall in Love With Legumes

FALL IN LOVE WITH LEGUMES

When was the last time you ate beans? If you’re like many Americans, you haven’t had them in a while—only about one in seven of us eat them on any given day. I think this is a huge mistake, because beans and other legumes are an incredible food. They have pretty much everything we need to lose weight and restore health; plus they’re inexpensive and easy to prepare.

Nutritionally, beans are like the Swiss Army knives of food—they do just about everything. They even help with weight loss, which makes them such a useful tool in The Healthy Diet.

But beans are more than just useful little packages of nutrients. In the kitchen, just about everything you couple them with gets better. Although they’re tasty on their own, they really shine when they’re matched with other foods. That’s because they’re able to take on the flavors of anything you pair with them, from spicy chili peppers to fresh aromatic herbs to fragrant dried spices.

Say you’ve got a can of white beans. Sure, you can heat them up and eat them as is, mix them into soups, or toss them onto salads. But if you join them with a few other ingredients—including tastes from around the globe—you can transform them into some amazing dishes. In less time than it takes to grill a lamb chop, you can make beans the centerpiece of a meal.

BEANS: YOUR SECRET CULINARY WEAPON

Mash them up with garlic, a drizzle of olive oil, a splash of lemon juice, and a sprinkle of fresh oregano, and you have a delicious Mediterranean dip for fresh vegetables.
Toss them with avocado chunks, fresh salsa from your grocery store, and a squirt of lime, and you have the perfect Southern California side dish for grilled fish.
Combine kidney beans and black beans with diced red onions, chopped jalapeños, cilantro, olive oil, and balsamic vinegar for a zesty Tex-Mex three-bean salad.
Lightly sauté them with garlic, fresh rosemary, and baby spinach for a flavorful Northern Italian sidekick to grilled chicken breasts.
Stir them into tomato sauce flavored with mustard seed, cumin, coriander, chili powder, and turmeric for a distinctive Southeast Asian curry.
Simmer lentils with canned or boxed vegetable broth, chopped vegetables (celery, carrots, onions), canned diced tomatoes, fresh ginger, paprika, saffron, and turmeric for a hearty Moroccan-inspired lentil stew.
Turn everyday vegetable soup into a Tuscan specialty by mixing in kidney beans, garlic, chopped zucchini, and fresh basil.

I don’t know about you, but my mouth is watering just thinking about all of those incredible meals. In fact, I think I’ll make that curry for dinner tonight.

If you’re still not convinced that legumes belong on your table pretty regularly, keep reading. I’m so blown away by their nutritional power that I’m going to wow you with seven really great reasons to include them in your diet at least a few times a week.

REASON 1: THEY PUT WEIGHT LOSS ON THE FAST TRACK.

Legumes are packed with fiber. More studies than I can count have drawn a connection between high-fiber foods and weight loss. It’s pretty simple: foods that are high in fiber fill you up, staying in your digestive system longer than other, more quickly digested foods. People who eat legumes are less hungry compared with people who eat low-fiber foods with the same amount of calories. Legume eaters also tend to consume fewer calories later in the day.

All this fullness translates to weight loss, as confirmed in a number of studies. For example, in a 2009 study published in the Journal of Medicinal Food, obese men following low-calorie diets lost about 50 percent more weight when their meal plans included legumes. And a 2008 analysis of nearly 1,500 people published in the Journal of the American College of Nutrition found that bean eaters had lower body weights and waist sizes than non–bean eaters. In fact, bean eaters were 22 percent less likely to be obese than those who didn’t eat beans.

Legumes are stuffed with both soluble and insoluble fiber. Soluble fiber generally helps the heart, and insoluble fiber keeps food moving smoothly through the gut.

THE AVERAGE AMERICAN GETS ONLY 15 GRAMS OF FIBER DAILY—FAR SHORT OF THE 21 TO 25 GRAMS RECOMMENDED EVERY DAY FOR WOMEN AND THE 30 TO 38 GRAMS FOR MEN.

Here’s a look at the fiber content of various kinds of legumes:

TYPE OF LEGUME (½ cup, cooked)	GRAMS OF FIBER
Navy beans	9.5
Kidney beans	8.1
Lentils	7.8
Black beans	7.5
Lima beans	6.6
White beans	6.3
Chickpeas	6.2
Great northern beans	6.2
Cowpeas	5.6
Soybeans (edamame)	5.2

REASON #2: THEY DELIVER BARGAIN-PRICED PROTEIN.

As we’ve discussed, eating higher-protein meals and snacks can speed up your metabolism, weight loss, and fat burn. Protein is an important part of The Healthy Diet Meal Plan Equation for weight loss.

But eating plenty of protein doesn’t mean eating loads and loads of meat. As we discussed under Food Prescription #2, eating a protein-rich diet doesn’t mean piling burgers, bacon, and all kinds of processed meats onto your plate at every meal. Eating legumes allows you to get the protein you need without overdosing on meat or emptying your wallet.

You don’t have to become a vegetarian or vegan to see an impact on your health. Evidence of this comes from several places, including a 2012 study of more than 120,000 adults, which was published in the Journal of the American Medical Association. Looking at people’s dietary habits over the course of several decades, the study found that people who substituted legumes for just one serving per day of meat were 10 percent less likely to die during the study period than those who didn’t.

On The Healthy Diet, you can choose legumes instead of meat whenever you want. I can tell you personally that this is a substitution I make most days. That’s one of the great things about The Healthy Diet: you can make the choices that are best for you.

Take a look at the protein content of several kinds of legumes:

TYPE OF LEGUME (½ cup, cooked)	GRAMS OF PROTEIN
Beans (black, kidney, white, etc.)	7–8
Lentils	9
Chickpeas	6
Hummus (¼ cup)	4–5

REASON #3: AS THE SAYING GOES, THEY REALLY ARE GOOD FOR YOUR HEART.

Legumes lower levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol when their soluble fiber binds with fatty acids in the body. They also bring down harmful triglycerides and seem to have a beneficial effect on blood pressure—all of which helps cut your risk of developing heart disease.

FOR OPTIMAL HEALTH BENEFITS, AIM FOR AT LEAST THREE CUPS OF COOKED LEGUMES PER WEEK. MOST AMERICANS GET LESS THAN ONE CUP A WEEK.

REASON #4: THEY SLOW THINGS DOWN—IN A GOOD WAY.

When you eat legumes, their rich fiber content slows down digestion of carbohydrates and the conversion of carbohydrates to blood sugar. That means blood sugar and insulin levels rise and fall gradually after consuming legumes rather than shooting up and plummeting down. That helps diminish cravings and overeating and is especially important for people with insulin resistance, prediabetes, and diabetes.

A 2012 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine showed that participants who ate a cup of legumes daily for three months saw significant decreases in the results of their HbA1c blood tests, which measure average levels of blood sugar over extended periods of time. A diet rich in whole grains also lowered HbA1c levels, but not as much as the legumes.

In China, a 2008 study of more than 64,000 middle-aged women published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition found that eating legumes was associated with a 38 percent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes.

REASON #5: THEY CUT YOUR RISK OF CANCER.

Studies show that people who eat a high-fiber diet that includes ample amounts of legumes have lower rates of colorectal cancer. The insoluble fiber in beans helps keep bowels healthy in several ways: it balances pH levels, helps remove toxins from the intestines, and prevents cancer-causing microbes from causing trouble.

Legumes contain a variety of cancer-fighting phytochemicals as well, and studies under way are looking at legumes’ impact on other kinds of cancer, such as cancer of the lungs or blood.

A PORTION OF UNCOOKED (DRY) BEANS USUALLY DOUBLE OR TRIPLE DURING COOKING, SO HALF A CUP OF DRY BEANS IS EQUAL TO APPROXIMATELY 1 TO 1½ CUPS OF COOKED BEANS.

REASON #6: LEGUMES ARE PACKED WITH NUTRIENTS.

Legumes contain several important vitamins and minerals, including iron, magnesium, zinc, folate, and calcium. These help keep your heart, blood, and bones healthy.

REASON #7: THEY’RE THE GIFT THAT KEEPS ON GIVING.

I know, it sounds like a pretty big promise to say that eating legumes will help you live longer. But that’s exactly what researchers found in a 2004 study of 785 elderly people across the globe. The seven-year study, published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition, found that for every 20 gram (about 2 tablespoons) increase in daily legume intake, study subjects were about 8 percent less likely to die during the study period. No other food group showed such dramatic results.

THE 411 ON LEGUMES

Legumes come from plants whose seedpods split on two sides when they’re ripe.
Beans, lentils, soybeans, and peas are all part of the legume family.
Beans and peas in the legume family are referred to as “dry” to differentiate them from string beans and green peas, vegetables that contain a different set of nutrients.
Technically, peanuts are a type of legume rather than tree nut. But nutritionally they are more like nuts than legumes, so The Healthy Diet considers them part of the nut family.

WILD ABOUT HUMMUS

If you haven’t tried hummus yet, I strongly recommend that you run out to the grocery store and pick some up. Hummus is a snack food that I really love.

Hummus is a dip or spread made from cooked, mashed chickpeas, crushed sesame seeds (a paste known as tahini), olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, and spices. Optional ingredients include roasted red peppers, olives, spinach, artichokes, extra garlic, roasted eggplant, avocado, and other vegetables. It originated in the Middle East, but today you can find it in most supermarkets and convenience stores. It’s also pretty easy to make at home.

The best thing about hummus (other than its taste) is its nutritional content: a two-tablespoon serving has two grams of protein, one gram of fiber, and no saturated fat, trans fat, or cholesterol. Most kinds are gluten-free. I love hummus as a dip for fresh vegetables or whole-grain crackers and as a spread on sandwiches.

COOKING WITH LEGUMES

It’s up to you to decide what kind of legumes to use—canned or bagged. Buying dry beans in a bag and cooking them yourself saves money and allows you to flavor them as you like during the preparation process. But it also takes time, and easy-to-use canned legumes have the same health benefits as the ones that you cook yourself. (Some kinds of legumes, such as lima beans, black-eyed peas, and soybeans are also available frozen.)

If you use canned beans, check the label for sodium. If your beans are salted, a quick rinse under cold water will remove most of the salt.

Dry beans cook best when they’re presoaked. Soak them overnight in cold water, or try this quick-soak method: Place beans in a large pot and add two cups of water for every one cup of beans. Bring to a boil and cook for two to three minutes. Remove from heat and let the beans sit for one to four hours. Drain the beans, rinse them, and then cook in fresh water until tender—typically about 60 to 90 minutes, depending on the type of bean. (For extra flavor, throw in a yellow onion and a couple of bay leaves.) Cooked beans can be kept in the refrigerator for several days or frozen for several months.

Q: I’M WILLING TO EAT LEGUMES, BUT I HAVE TO ADMIT, THEY GIVE ME GAS. IS THERE A WAY TO PREVENT THIS?

A: Suddenly adding a lot of fiber to your diet can cause bloating and gas. The key is to add it in gradually—don’t go from eating zero legumes today to eating two cups a day tomorrow. Increase your intake slowly, over the course of a couple of weeks. Other ways to prevent gas and bloating include soaking dried beans overnight and rinsing them before cooking (it removes some of the compounds that contribute to flatulence), choosing less-gassy legumes (lentils, black-eyed peas, azuki beans) and avoiding major gas producers (lima beans, pinto beans, navy beans) until your system adjusts, and chewing beans thoroughly before swallowing. If you cook bagged beans from scratch, toss ⅛ teaspoon of baking soda into the presoaking water; it’s believed to make beans less gassy.

THE LAST LAUGH

Everyone makes jokes about beans. But when you include beans and other legumes as part of your diet, you get the last laugh. While other people are making fun of them, you are getting an amazing bundle of fat-burning nutrients every time you eat them. Yeah, they may be the “musical fruit,” as we jokingly referred to them in grade school. But once you start eating them regularly, the music tends to subside, allowing their fantastic health benefits to shine through.

And speaking of foods that we joked about in grade school, maybe you’re old enough to remember those 1970s TV commercials for a not-so-popular food that allegedly helped keep people alive well past their nineties. We laughed when we watched these really ancient Russian farmers eating a food that many of us had never tasted. But today we know that those crazy old commercials were actually right on target—in fact, the food they recommended is actually my next Food Prescription.

Sunday, July 20, 2014