Wednesday, July 24, 2013

Beans, beans, the musical fruit

Beans, they are good food for the body yet here in America many people eat them once or twice a year. Why is this so? Probably because nearly every six year old goes around chanting a little thing they heard in school that goes something like this "Beans, beans, the musical fruit, the more you eat the more you toot, the more you toot  the better you feel, so lets eat beans at every meal." Is is any wonder that passing gas is so funny to a six year old?


Beans do tend to cause gas for some people because they are are so high in fiber and other things that our bodies have forgotten how to use. For many of us beans/lentils are a foriegn food that our bodies don't know what to do with.  What was once a staple of the diet has become nearly extinct except at the occasional barbecue, and then the jokes start. Yet the key to helping with the gas trouble is to eat beans/lentils regularly. Eat beans 3 times a week and watch what happens. (alot less gas) 



pdphoto.org 

People all over the world eat beans and lentils everyday. Our Grandparents and Great Grandparents ate beans as a staple food. What has happened since that stopped? Heart disease, diabetes, cancer, and a whole heap of other diseases and things have exploded upon the scene. We have gotten away from the goodness of the whole foods like beans and our bodies are telling us. It would do the body good to get back to the basics and eat beans more often. Many of the "preventable diseases" can be helped or prevented simply by adding things like beans back into the diet.

Part of the trouble is the time that it takes to prepare beans. To cook them from scratch takes time. even with a pressure cooker it takes time to cook them. Canned beans can be a great way to begin to add beans to your diet. They are convenient and easy to use. The other part of the trouble is "I don't know what to do with them besides making soup".  They can be used in soups, salads, or tossed into casseroles.  Lentils can be used to extend ground meat especially when well spiced.

If you are in need of some recipes and things to do with beans and lentils The savvy vegetarian has some great ideas, recipes, and tips for adding more of this great food to your diet. Adding in beans/lentils is one of the projects I am working on for myself and my family. I will update later on about how this is going for us.  In the meantime, What is your favorite way to get beans/lentils into your diet? Leave a comment below as inspiration for others.


For more info on types of beans available, more recipes, and cooking tips, check out the sites below.
101 vegetarian recipes
life 123


shared as part of real food wednesdays

6 comments:

  1. I am currently obsessed with refried beans. That's why you will find taco night on my menu once a week. You are right.........the more of them you eat, the less you will have the after effects. I'll have to look at other ways to include beans in my diet.

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  2. I love beans. To avoid the gas, it is best to allow dried beans to soak several hours prior to cooking. Lately, I've really enjoyed eating black bean tacos.

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  3. Hey there! Thank you so much for sharing this! Ok, first of all, you are so right! I talk to my great grandma in California a lot (she is in her 90s) and she eats pinto beans and other types of beans ALL THE TIME! The only type of beans me and my husband were used to was baked beans prior to us changing our diet and trying to live more healthy. And you know those have a whole host of sugar, sodium and high fructose corn syrup. So, when I made black beans in a stir fry for the first time, he looked at me with a face of "why would you add those in our meal?" LOL. He actually doesn't think they are so bad now. I cook that stir fry maybe once a week sometimes and then once every other week. I would love to get more recipes for beans to try because it's funny you mentioned lentils, but I have some and I have no idea what to do with them! I will definitely take a peek at that link you posted. I hope you come back to link up with us! I love your blog and your content is right up my alley! Glad to have connected with you! Following you now on everything: Facebook and Google (from what I saw). <3

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  4. Sounds great! Thanks for sharing on The HomeAcre Hop last week! Hope to see you back again today at:
    http://www.theselfsufficienthomeacre.com/2013/08/the-homeacre-hop-30.html

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