Healthy Tips for Buying and Preparing Beans

Guess what food is super high in protein, contains barely any fat at all, and has more fiber than most whole grain foods? The answer is a kosher four-letter word — beans! They have the power to help you lower your cholesterol levels, reduce your chance of heart disease, fuel muscle growth, and stabilize insulin levels.

Because they are so beneficial to your health, it’s important to understand how to best make them work for your body.

Tips for Buying and Preparing Beans

Buy Vegetarian Beans
Stay away from canned beans that contain lard. Make sure that they are marked as 100% vegetarian.

Fully Rinse All Beans
Whether you are buying canned or dry beans, rinse them thoroughly. Rinsing canned beans will reduce the sodium content by about 40 percent. Plus, it’s important to make sure you get rid of any contaminants that may be inside a bag of dry beans. Sometimes there are also rocks and other soil elements that can get into your meal.

Expand Your Understanding of Legumes
Do not forget that peas, string beans, and green beans are also members of the legume family. These options can be easily added to most dinners and salads to help you include beans into your diet.

Eat a Variety of Beans
Try to eat a variety of beans, as different bean colors means that different polyphenols are present. These phytonutrients have antioxidant properties and help to fight against free radicals.

Of course, there are all sorts of amazing ways to prepare beans. You you have them with your avocado and eggs in the morning, include them in salads for lunch, and eat them with a nice piece of fish in the evening.

The sky is the limit with beans. Get creative and have a blast eating them!