6 reasons to eat more beans and pulses
Mallika Basu explains why you should get over your ‘beans hesitancy’ to improve your diet, navigate the cost-of-living crisis and fight climate change
Often overlooked, dried beans, peas, and lentils are nutritional powerhouses with significant benefits for health, the environment, and finances. Designated by the UN as pulses, these leguminous seeds are essential for sustainable diets. They provide plant-based protein, reduce reliance on meat, and contribute to carbon sequestration and soil fertility. Hardy and water-efficient, they support biodiversity and regenerative agriculture. Despite their digestive challenges, they are crucial in diverse global cuisines and are recommended by the Eat-Lancet Commission. Advocates urge doubling consumption by 2028 for a healthier planet and population.
Do you have 'bean hesitancy'?
If digestive woes hold you back from bean love, you are not alone. Bean hesitancy describes the reluctance of some people to eat beans, which becomes “bean resistance” in more severe cases. Some reasons for this include...
Misconceptions
Misconceptions and misinformation abound about how to prepare and eat beans, which affect perceptions and understanding.
Difficulty cooking
Some people think beans are difficult or time-consuming to cook, especially when cooked from the dried versions.
Intolerance
Some varieties of legumes can cause digestive discomfort and pain, and in some cases, allergic reactions like itching and hives.
Hard-to-cook phenomenon
Some legumes are resistant to softening during cooking after lengthy storage, rendering them hard and unpalatable.
If you need a little convincing to find fresh love for dried pulses, here are six things to know that might help persuade you...
6 benefits of eating more beans and pulses
1. Nutrition powerhouses
Pulses are a rich source of proteins (21-25%), complex carbohydrates (60-65%), dietary fibre (10-20%) and micronutrients such as folate, thiamine, riboflavin, vitamin B6, niacin, iron, zinc, magnesium and potassium, according to Julie A Lovegrove, professor of nutrition at University of Reading in her paper titled ‘The benefits and challenges associated with raising our daily pulses’. They are low in fat and have a low glycaemic index, which means they don’t cause blood sugar levels to spike. They naturally contain all the essential amino acids for a complete protein, and combining them with grains can further enhance their goodness, says Ali Morpeth, public health nutritionist and bean champion. The soluble variety of dietary fibre found in pulses can aid digestive and bowel health, help lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease.
2. Gut health heroes
While they can be the butt of gassy jokes, beans are excellent for gut health. That gassiness and flatulence you feel is, in fact, your gut bacteria enjoying a feast in your stomach. Gas is the by-product of gut bacteria breaking down the oligosaccharides in beans and pulses. For those who experience discomfort, experts recommend introducing pulses slowly into the diet so the system can adjust. Soaking pulses, with a few changes of water, also helps. As a rule, the longer a dried bean is likely to take to cook, the more it would benefit from a soak. Ironically, the more we eat beans the higher the chances of more investment into plant breeding programmes to develop varieties that are comfortable to stomach.
3. Mental health champs
When gut bacteria are happily fed, they produce the right neurotransmitters for better mental health, too. Dr Radzman is leading a campaign called Broad n Mind to raise awareness of the role of broad beans in mental health. They are rich in levodopa (or L-DOPA), a compound that helps increase dopamine or the brain's "feel-good" chemical. She also highlighted that fermented beans like tempeh and doubanjiang (Chinese spicy fermented beans) are a great source of GABA, a relaxing neurotransmitter that can help with anxiety. Each type of bean comes with its own nutrition profile, so the best way to optimise their health benefits if to eat a variety of them.
4. Versatile, fast food
On their own, pulses may not seem the most exciting of ingredients, but paired with the right herbs, seasoning and spices they are sponges for flavour. They can also be used in many forms. Fava bean flour and gram flour, made of huskless little brown chickpeas, make excellent gluten-free bakes and pancakes, for instance. Lovegrove is spearheading a campaign called "Raising the Pulse", which incorporates pulses into staple foods like bread to increase their use. When cooked, pulses are arguably the fastest of fast foods. A quick toss in heady flavours and they're a nutritious and quick meal. There is little difference between the convenience offered by cans, packets and jars, except the ones in the latter can be seasoned and softer in texture. Dried beans offer the added flexibility of adjusting texture and taste.
5. Affordable, available and low-waste
Cooking pulses from scratch has the added benefit of being enormously cost-effective and handy, given their long shelf life. While it may seem like a chore to soak the beans overnight and then cook them, slow cookers and pressure cookers make it a breeze. A cook's tip from Ghanaian food writer Patti Sloley is to soak a cup of pulses with a teaspoon of bicarbonate of soda, rinse and then cook with fresh water to speed things up. Once cooked, you can portion and freeze pulses. The are also readily available online, in supermarkets and corner shops. Look out for locally grown varieties to support local enterprise, soil and food security and revive historic favourites. Hodmedod's has been driving the movement in the UK bringing back varieties like carlin peas, which date back to medieval monks and had a lengthy hiatus from our grocery shelves.
6. The world at your fingertips
If school dinners and bland lentil suppers have left you underwhelmed with pulses, there is a whole world of inspiration from people who know how to season and serve them. The UK and Ireland’s beloved baked beans, for instance, originated in Native American tribes. The recipes from cuisines around the world that centre beans in the diet are likely to use generations of traditional, indigenous and scientific knowledge to make them palatable and digestible. Mexico’s Epazote herb, East Asia’s kombu sea kelp and ginger, fennel, carom seeds and asafoetida in South Asia are all used to dispel gas and discomfort when cooking beans. They may well remove any lingering resistance you may feel towards pulses and beans, too.