Beans, Beans, the Magical Fruit....

the more you eat the more you toot!

I made a yummy bean salad today for lunch and naturally wanted to share the recipe and nutritional facts with my readers.





Nutritional benefits of beans

Beans are a water-soluble fiber which form gels that provide beneficial effects including:
* Slow stomach emptying which contributes to fullness and decreased appetite.
* This delayed stomach emptying slows the absorption of carbohydrates which reduces after-meal blood sugar spikes (this helps regulate blood sugar especially those who have diabetes)
* Binds to fatty acids
* Lowers LDL (bad)cholesterol

Beans are a complex carbohydrates (a.k.a.good carbs), which take longer for the body to digest keeping you fuller longer. Because of its complex chain form, your digestive enzymes have to work much harder to access the bonds to break the chain into individual sugars for absorption through the intestines. Because of that, the digestion of complex carbohydrates takes longer. The slow absorption of sugars provides you with a steady supply of energy and limits the amount of sugar converted into fat and stored.



Beans are a great alternative to animal-based protein and they sure measure up to a beef steak. A 50 g piece of beef steak provides 14.5 g of protein while 1 cup of red kidney beans provides 15.3 g of protein minus the saturated fat from the steak. Not bad for this magical fruit!

Beans provide 3.6 - 5.2 mg of iron per 1 cup. When iron is low, red blood cells can’t carry enough oxygen to the body’s tissues, causing fatigue.


Easy peasy Bean Salad



1/2 can romano beans strained and rinsed (or dried beans-rinsed, soaked overnight,picked through and bowled until tender)

1 small finely chopped sliced red onion

3 large red leaf lettuce; washed

1 cup thinly sliced radicchio

1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp dried oregano

1 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste


Lay red leaf lettuce in single serving salad bowl.

Throw the rest of the ingredients in a separate bowl and toss.

Place bean/radicchio mixture on lettuce and serve.
Easy peasy!