Super foods refer to foods that are packed with significant amounts of phytonutrients, antioxidants, vitamins, trace elements, and dietary fiber to promote better health and well-being of the body. These foods are nutritious to provide the nutrients required by the body to put you in a better mood. The nutritionist, Elizabeth Somer, also an author of Nutrition for a Healthy Pregnancy, Food & Mood, and The Essential Guide to Vitamins and Minerals says, “The effect that diet can have on how you feel today and in the future is astounding,…Even people who are healthy can make a few tweaks and the impact will be amazing,” Somer insists that, “ I'd say that 50% to 70% of suffering could be eliminated by what people eat and how they move: heart disease, diabetes, cancer, hypertension can all be impacted.”
Beans
Beans are excellent sources of vitamin B group and protein. They are one of the most nutritionally-complete staple foods with lower fat content; a rich source of a variety of proteins, inexpensive and widely available. They provide the vegetarians protein more than two times as much protein per serving as cereal grains. Beans are also another good source of iron and zinc particularly for vegetarians who do not add meat in their diets. The combination of both beans and cereal grains provide us all the amino acids that our body needs daily. These are the reasons why beans should be served at the dining table. Generally, one half cup serving of beans contains the nutrient as follow (the figure may slightly vary depend on its varieties):
115 calories, 20g carbohydrate, 47mg magnesium, 144mg folate, 0.5g total fat, 0g saturated fat, 2.23mg iron, 0.93g zinc, 0g cholesterol, 7g dietary fiber, 7g protein, 400mg potassium and 0mg sodium.
Note: Beans here do not include the processed beans which may contain substantial amount of sodium.
Examples
Lentils, peas, green beans, winged beans, broad beans, black beans, red beans, and etc.
Recommendations
Eat varieties of beans four times per week with each serving of 0.5 cup (a size of cup here indicates the size of a baseball). For a vegetarian, ¼ cup of cooked beans, peas, or lentils can substitute 1 oz of meat. As the protein in beans is approximately 15 grams per cup (may vary slightly depending on its variety, excluding soy beans which may pack 29 grams per cup), the vegetarians can add a variety of beans to their menu without skimping on protein.
Health Benefits
Regulating and stabilizing the blood sugar; lowering the cholesterol level; preventing heart disease and diabetes; fighting against high blood pressure; easing the diverticulitis of the colon disease; reducing the risk of cancer (particularly the pancreatic, colon, breast and prostate cancer) ; reducing obesity and constipation.
Reasons and Evidence
As beans are low in both fat and calories but high in dietary fiber and protein, it aids in controlling body weight. Additionally, the dietary fiber in beans helps slow the absorption rate of carbohydrate. The slower rate of carbohydrate absorption, not only reducing caloric intake as it prevents hunger from occurring too soon but also moderating blood sugar peaks due to the food intake. Beans also contribute to heart health by maintaining normal range for several risk factors for heart disease that include blood cholesterol, blood homocysteine level and blood pressure. The diet pattern of four to five servings each week from the “seeds, nuts and beans” category plus fruits, vegetables, grains are well-balanced diet that is clinically proven to reduce the risk of heart disease.
Tips
Most people worry that the beans may have caused the gaseous formation in the body due to that the bacteria break down “non-digestible” carbohydrate in the large intestine. Thus, they avoid taking or reducing the intake of beans in order to let the body to adapt with this food. To help reducing the gas formation, the beans should first soak for overnight before cooking in order to reduce any digestive related diseases. And the water used to rehydrate dry beans should be discarded but not use for cooking. Another alternative is to soak the beans in the boiling water and then simmer for 2 to 3 minutes. Remove the pot from the stove, cover and soak the beans for about 4 to 16 hours, drain the rehydrated beans, discard the soak water, add fresh water to the beans and simmer until they become soft and tender.
Warnings
Avoid eating raw beans as they contain prussic (hydrocyanic) acid which is poisonous to our body. Nevertheless, the poisonous of prussic acid is eliminated after cooking. It has been documented in 1957 that some people became very sick from vomiting, stomach ache, circulation problems, convulsions, heart palpitations, and low blood pressure a few hours after eating raw beans or bean seeds. Raw beans can also cause nausea and vomiting in sensitive people. Even though it is always said that green beans help reducing high blood pressure besides improving the functionality of insulin among diabetes patients, green beans must not be used to substitute medical treatments for diabetes. Thus, it is always advisable to eat cooked or steamed beans either as a side dish or a salad. That is why German always overcooked the beans as they are more cautious in eating raw beans.
