Spill the Beans

I often hear the expression “spill the beans” – which means to reveal secret information – although, nowadays, people are changing it to “spill the tea,” which means to reveal gossip – how strange.

Be Full of Beans

What about the expression ‘Full of Beans’ means full of energy, full of life.

Many different types of beans are put together; they make an interesting and colorful mix of different shapes and protein colors.

Wearing a Beanie

That would mean you had on some woolly type of head-hugging brimless cap.

Beans are Fat-Free Protein

When people think of protein, they’ll mention beef, lamb, pork, chicken, fish, cheese, eggs… but no beans. However, beans (legumes) are an essential form of protein that gives you benefits you won’t receive from the other proteins.

What Form of Bean

When it comes to beans, you mostly find them either hard and loose, so you have to buy them by the weight method, take them home, and soak them overnight before cooking them. The other way is to buy a can of beans and those you can eat or cook with, right away.

Beans are Best

Beans are full of surprises. They are a fantastic source of protein that has this little quirk. Meat has protein, but it also has animal fat. Beans don’t have this fat. They have fewer calories and are much healthier for you to eat. By the way, did you know they help to strengthen the bones and protect the heart? Amazing!

First, here are some health benefits we get from beans:

Benefits

• They keep your bones healthy because they are full of phosphorous, magnesium, iron, copper, calcium, copper, zinc, and other good things that keep building and maintaining and strengthening your bone structure.

• They protect our hearts by means of the Vitamin B6, potassium, folate, fiber, and phytonutrient they contain, they lower the amount of cholesterol in the blood, and the risk of heart disease is decreased.

• They lower blood pressure. They sustain a low sodium intake, which is vital for maintaining the expected level of blood pressure. Black beans are naturally low in sodium content and contain potassium, calcium, and magnesium; these automatically decrease blood pressure.

• They help to manage diabetes. Take one cup, or 172 grams (g), of cooked black beans, contributes 15 g of fiber. People who are Type 1 diabetes and who consume high-fiber diets have lower blood glucose levels. Further, type 2 diabetes people can improve their blood sugar, lipids, and insulin levels.

• They help to prevent cancer. They are high in folate, and folate plays a role in DNA synthesis and repair to prevent cancer cells from forming. Selenium is a mineral not found in fruit and veg, but black beans contain a large amount of it, preventing inflammation and tumor growth rates.

• Healthy Digestion. Beans are so full of fiber, and they help to prevent constipation and keep the colon healthy.

• They Assist with Weight Loss. As black soybeans are so chock full of fiber, they make you feel full very quickly, and so you lose your appetite for more, which helps you lose weight.

It’s a good idea to keep a supply of canned black soybeans on your kitchen shelves, so they are handy immediately.

Uses

• You could use them to make a soup but make sure to open the can and flush the beans with water through a colander first. Then you could put them in the blender together with tomatoes and onions and whatever else you fancy. It would be a very nourishing soup, and that would also do you a world of good.

• If you like to make burritos, you could add your black soybeans to those.

• Why not make a bean dip with black soybeans, garlic, onion, cilantro, and lime juice

• Conversely, you could mix the black soybeans with onions and lettuce, avocados and tomatoes, cheddar cheese, and salsa for a simple but excellent taco salad.

Before you start cooking, let’s look at any downsides there may be:

Risks

They can cause you gas and discomfort (not to mention embarrassment) the first few times you eat them, but eventually, you adjust. Especially when this is really the only drawback, we can think of put up against the myriad of benefits.

Black beans and black soybeans are not quite the same. The black soybeans taste slightly differently, they need cooking a little longer, and they are better than black beans regarding their content:

Why Black Soybeans Are Better Than Black Beans

• 1.69x more proteins per 100g 36.49gvs21.6g
• 21.17% more potassium per 100g 1797mgvs1483mg
• 1.97x more copper per 100g 1.66mgvs0.841mg
• 4.51x more riboflavin per 100g 0.87mgvs0.193mg
• 2.25x more calcium per 100g 277mgvs123mg
• 3.13x more iron per 100g 15.7mgvs5.02mg
• 1.64x more magnesium per 100g 280mgvs171mg
• 2x more phosphorus per 100g 704mgvs352mg

So, from the above, you can see for yourselves that the soybean has superior content.

Soy Free Diets

If you’re on a soy-free diet, then it’s necessary to stay away from all that contains soy. Soy Black Beans, therefore, cannot be part of your diet, but you can eat other beans. It would be best if you read the labels to see what’s in the can.

Extremely Healthy

Black soybeans are extraordinarily healthy for you and should form part of your weekly intake. You can find then on the shelves of most supermarkets, and sometimes those little corner shops may surprise you, and you’ll find one or two cans at the back of a shelf.

Easy Peasy

They are so easy to put together to make a meal. Try this one:

Recipe for a Salad

Mix a number of black soybeans with chopped avocado, chopped baby tomatoes, squeeze a little lime juice over the plate, and add some cilantro. It probably takes 10 minutes to put together from scratch, and this meal is healthy, nourishing, and delicious.

Maybe some people don’t eat beans because they don’t know how extremely healthy they are for us. Perhaps they don’t know how to cook them but, once again, read the labels because all the information you need is there.

If more people ate black beans or black soybeans, there probably wouldn’t be any more constipation. People would be fitter, and they would lose weight, gain strength, and, in general, be a lot happier because of it.

Brainwashed Not to Eat Beans

Many of us have been brainwashed into believing that the ideal way of eating is a plate of meat and two vegs. The meat should take up most of the plate with about three peas and half a tomato, or a withered small piece of lettuce or two slices of cucumber or something similarly bleak. Now, if most of the plate was full of beans as the protein and some avocado, some tomato was also put on the plate, and (if you must have meat), then a small piece of grilled chicken on the side. See how much fitter we would be if we ate that?

What a Shame We Missed So Much

In the past, people haven’t been taking beans seriously. If you mentioned the word ‘bean’ to anyone, they’d immediately assume you were referring to a can of beans in tomato sauce – baked beans on toast. That was it. That was all you could do with beans.

Can you imagine if we all believed that and looked no further – we would never have found Chile Con Carne and other such Mexican delights?

Beans Forever For some unknown reason, some of us can’t get our heads around the fact that the noble bean can hold its own anytime against the other more familiar proteins. You can talk about beef, mutton, chicken, fish, cheese, and eggs (all good foods that shouldn’t be knocked) but never forget to put the bean right up there with the rest of them because that little bean, that little black soybean, could be working hard at saving your life.