If I could take only one food to a desert island, it would be beans—or cheesecake. The jury's still out. Beans are seriously sort of magical (and not only because they're the musical fruit). They're economical, packed with nutrition, natural antioxidants, folate, fiber, and are very filling.
Save your HEART
Eat beans three times a week and reduce your chances of getting heart disease by 22%. Eat a cup of beans every day and your chances of getting heart disease go down by 38%.
Ditch Type 2 DIABETES
Beans are valuable not only in preventing diabetes but also in the management of blood sugar levels. Beans are rich in complex carbohydrates such as dietary fiber, which are digested more slowly. As a result, bean consumption has been shown to increase feelings of fullness and help regulate plasma glucose and insulin levels after eating a meal.
Kick CANCER to the curb
Eating beans may reduce the risk for developing certain types of cancers due to beans' lovely contribution of adding bioactive compounds to the diet, including flavonoids, tannins, phenolic compounds and other antioxidants These compounds act to decrease the risk of cancer, as well as other chronic diseases.
FIBER Fitness
Nutritionists recommend adults get 25 to 38 grams of fiber a day. Most of us don't get that consistently. Fiber helps maintain our digestive system and makes us feel full so we eat less crap. Beans are a rich source of soluble and insoluble fiber. On average, beans provide 7 or more grams of total dietary fiber per ½-cup serving.
FOLATE
Folate is essential to the production of red blood cells and vitamin B folate is found in abundance in beans. Tip: Studies show it's better to soak your beans than to do the quick method (which entails boiling beans for a short time and soaking for an hour). Beans retain more folate with the long soak method.
Okay, fine! I'm taking beans. Cheesecake makes me happy in the short term, but beans almost certainly will make me happier in the long run!
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