Health benefits of pulses

2016 is the International Year of Pulses

Eating beans, chickpeas or lentils may help with weight loss

One serving of pulses a day can help to get your weight away. That’s right. Including one serving a day of beans, peas, chickpeas or lentils in your daily menu can contribute to modest weight loss, says a new Canadian study published on the last day of March, 2016, in “The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.”

Tip:

Spinach is “made of” over 90% of water.
So, don’t be shy with your spinach meal – it grossly reduces in size when cooked.

“Effects of dietary pulse consumption on body weight: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials” – the article resulted from the meta-analysis, conducted by a team from Toronto St. Michael’s Hospital and lead by Dr. Russell de Souza, looked at a total of 940 participants from 21 different clinical trials. The researches came to the following conclusion: “The inclusion of dietary pulses in a diet may be a beneficial weight-loss strategy because it leads to a modest weight-loss effect even when diets are not intended to be calorically restricted.”

To be precise, eating about 3/4 cup (130g) each day of pulses led to a weight loss of 0.34kg over a six-week period without making an effort to reduce any other foods.

Pulses come from the legumes. A legume is a plant in the family Fabaceae, or the fruit or seed of such a plant. Well-known legumes include alfalfa, clover, peas, beans, lentils, lupins, mesquite, carob, soybeans, peanuts and tamarind. However, the term “pulse” refers only to the dried seed. Dried peas, edible beans, lentils and chickpeas are the most common varieties of pulses.

Pulses are very high in protein and fibre, and are low in fat. Legumes are a significant source of protein, dietary fiber, carbohydrates and dietary minerals; for example, a 100 gram serving of cooked chickpeas contains 18% of the Daily Value (DV) for protein, 30% DV for dietary fiber, 43% DV for folate and 52% DV for manganese. Like other plant-based foods, pulses contain no cholesterol and little fat or sodium. Legumes are also an excellent source of resistant starch which is broken down by bacteria in the large intestine to produce short-chain fatty acids used by intestinal cells for food energy.

To increase public awareness on the many health benefits of pulses, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) has declared 2016 the International Year of Pulses.
… Because not too many people eat pulses on a daily basis. So there is room for most of us to include pulses in our diet.