Hey y’all,
I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again: Beans are fantastic!
Beans are one of the highest lysine-containing plant foods. Lysine is an amino acid (a type of protein) that is essential for the body to make collagen. Collagen is like body-glue. It keeps all your bones and joints together and working right, and it’s what keeps skin elastic and young-looking (which makes sense – it’s helping the skin to hold all your insides in).
Beans are collagen powerhouses, but they’re also little protein bombs! 1/2 a cup of cooked beans contains a whopping 7.5 g of protein. An egg contains about 6.5 g of protein. For a non-animal food, that’s quite a bit of protein!
Today, I ended up eating almost 2 cups of beans. I usually don’t get in that many beans, but today was leftover day, and apparently all my leftovers contained beans. I am planning on eating this many beans or even more in the future. I’m transitioning to a strict budget, and beans are inexpensive, calorie dense, and super healthy. I’m also looking to improve my health. I’ve been eating pretty healthy for a while now, but the time has come to push the envelope. I plan to begin exercising more intensely and regularly (especially after May when the baby comes), and that kind of work will require fuel – bean fuel in this case.
Beans are also so versatile! Not only are there so many types of beans (pinto, black, adzuki, mung, garbanzo, etc.), but they can be savory or sweet! You can eat them whole, or you can mash/puree them to put into things. I like to put bean puree into my baked goods to up the protein, fiber, and lysine content.
Beans are just great. I love beans!
Frugal Treehugger 