Authors: Travis Stork
The Doctor's Diet: Dr. Travis Stork's STAT Program to Help You Lose Weight & Restore Your Health (37 page)
| FOR OPTIMAL HEALTH BENEFITS, AIM FOR AT LEAST THREE CUPS OF COOKED LEGUMES PER WEEK. MOST AMERICANS GET LESS THAN ONE CUP A WEEK. |
When you eat legumes, their rich fiber content slows down digestion of carbohydrates and the conversion of carbohydrates to blood sugar. That means blood sugar and insulin levels rise and fall gradually after consuming legumes rather than shooting up and plummeting down. That helps diminish cravings and overeating and is especially important for people with insulin resistance, prediabetes, and diabetes.
A 2012 study published in the
Archives of Internal Medicine
showed that participants who ate a cup of legumes daily for three months saw significant decreases in the results of their HbA1c blood tests, which measure average levels of blood sugar over extended periods of time. A diet rich in whole grains also lowered HbA1c levels, but not as much as the legumes.
In China, a 2008 study of more than 64,000 middle-aged women published in the
American Journal of Clinical Nutrition
found that eating legumes was associated with a 38 percent lower risk of developing type 2 diabetes.
Studies show that people who eat a high-fiber diet that includes ample amounts of legumes have lower rates of colorectal cancer. The insoluble fiber in beans helps keep bowels healthy in several ways: it balances pH levels, helps remove toxins from the intestines, and prevents cancer-causing microbes from causing trouble.
Legumes contain a variety of cancer-fighting phytochemicals as well, and studies under way are looking at legumes’ impact on other kinds of cancer, such as cancer of the lungs or blood.
| A PORTION OF UNCOOKED (DRY) BEANS USUALLY DOUBLE OR TRIPLE DURING COOKING, SO HALF A CUP OF DRY BEANS IS EQUAL TO APPROXIMATELY 1 TO 1½ CUPS OF COOKED BEANS. |
Legumes contain several important vitamins and minerals, including iron, magnesium, zinc, folate, and calcium. These help keep your heart, blood, and bones healthy.
I know, it sounds like a pretty big promise to say that eating legumes will help you live longer. But that’s exactly what researchers found in a 2004 study of 785 elderly people across the globe. The seven-year study, published in the
Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition
, found that for every 20 gram (about 2 tablespoons) increase in daily legume intake, study subjects were about 8 percent less likely to die during the study period. No other food group showed such dramatic results.
THE 411 ON LEGUMES
Legumes come from plants whose seedpods split on two sides when they’re ripe.
Beans, lentils, soybeans, and peas are all part of the legume family.
Beans and peas in the legume family are referred to as “dry” to differentiate them from string beans and green peas, vegetables that contain a different set of nutrients.
Technically, peanuts are a type of legume rather than tree nut. But nutritionally they are more like nuts than legumes, so The Doctor’s Diet considers them part of the nut family.
WILD ABOUT HUMMUS
If you haven’t tried hummus yet, I strongly recommend that you run out to the grocery store and pick some up. Hummus is a snack food that I really love.
Hummus is a dip or spread made from cooked, mashed chickpeas, crushed sesame seeds (a paste known as tahini), olive oil, garlic, lemon juice, and spices. Optional ingredients include roasted red peppers, olives, spinach, artichokes, extra garlic, roasted eggplant, avocado, and other vegetables. It originated in the Middle East, but today you can find it in most supermarkets and convenience stores. It’s also pretty easy to make at home.
The best thing about hummus (other than its taste) is its nutritional content: a two-tablespoon serving has two grams of protein, one gram of fiber, and no saturated fat, trans fat, or cholesterol. Most kinds are gluten-free. I love hummus as a dip for fresh vegetables or whole-grain crackers and as a spread on sandwiches.
COOKING WITH LEGUMES
It’s up to you to decide what kind of legumes to use—canned or bagged. Buying dry beans in a bag and cooking them yourself saves money and allows you to flavor them as you like during the preparation process. But it also takes time, and easy-to-use canned legumes have the same health benefits as the ones that you cook yourself. (Some kinds of legumes, such as lima beans, black-eyed peas, and soybeans are also available frozen.)
If you use canned beans, check the label for sodium. If your beans are salted, a quick rinse under cold water will remove most of the salt.
Dry beans cook best when they’re presoaked. Soak them overnight in cold water, or try this quick-soak method: Place beans in a large pot and add two cups of water for every one cup of beans. Bring to a boil and cook for two to three minutes. Remove from heat and let the beans sit for one to four hours. Drain the beans,
rinse them, and then cook in fresh water until tender—typically about 60 to 90 minutes, depending on the type of bean. (For extra flavor, throw in a yellow onion and a couple of bay leaves.) Cooked beans can be kept in the refrigerator for several days or frozen for several months.
Q: I’M WILLING TO EAT LEGUMES, BUT I HAVE TO ADMIT, THEY GIVE ME GAS. IS THERE A WAY TO PREVENT THIS?
A:
Suddenly adding a lot of fiber to your diet can cause bloating and gas. The key is to add it in gradually—don’t go from eating zero legumes today to eating two cups a day tomorrow. Increase your intake slowly, over the course of a couple of weeks. Other ways to prevent gas and bloating include soaking dried beans overnight and rinsing them before cooking (it removes some of the compounds that contribute to flatulence), choosing less-gassy legumes (lentils, black-eyed peas, azuki beans) and avoiding major gas producers (lima beans, pinto beans, navy beans) until your system adjusts, and chewing beans thoroughly before swallowing. If you cook bagged beans from scratch, toss
⅛
teaspoon of baking soda into the presoaking water; it’s believed to make beans less gassy.
Everyone makes jokes about beans. But when you include beans and other legumes as part of your diet, you get the last laugh. While other people are making fun of them, you are getting an amazing bundle of fat-burning nutrients every time you eat them. Yeah, they may be the “musical fruit,” as we jokingly referred to them in grade school. But once you start eating them regularly, the music tends to subside, allowing their fantastic health benefits to shine through.
And speaking of foods that we joked about in grade school, maybe you’re old enough to remember those 1970s TV commercials for a not-so-popular food that allegedly helped keep people alive well past their nineties. We laughed when we watched these really ancient Russian farmers eating a food that many of us had never tasted. But today we know that those crazy old commercials were actually right on target—in fact, the food they recommended is actually my next Food Prescription.
GO FOR YOGURT
I’ve always been a fan of yogurt, but my esteem turned to admiration in 2011 when Harvard School of Public Health researchers named yogurt as one of the two foods that are most associated with healthy long-term weight maintenance. (The other food is nuts.) Now, yogurt is one of my top go-to foods, and it holds an important spot in The Doctor’s Diet as well.
Here’s the deal: Researchers have been following the health of about 120,000 doctors and nurses for a couple of decades as part of three big studies at the Harvard School of Public Health. Every few years, the participants are asked all about their health, their food choices, their exercise routines, their weight, and all kinds of other stuff. Then, the researchers sift through tons of data and look for associations between the choices the participants have made over the years and their health and weight.