One of the Healthiest Foods on Earth for Battling Cancer
By
Lee Euler
/
January 24, 2018
One of the healthiest foods on earth for battling cancer
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Muhammad Massari <muhammad.massari@gmail.com>
To:BAFS
8 Jan at 16:28
One of the Healthiest Foods on Earth for Battling Cancer
https://www.cancerdefeated.com/one-of-the-healthiest-foods-on-earth-for-battling-cancer/6741/
I’ve
talked about scores of different cancer-fighting foods through the
years, but few come close to the powerful, all-round stellar effects you
can get from beans.
They’re cheap, versatile, and pack a wallop against just about every type of cancer there is.
Yet
they don’t have the best reputation, thanks to their tendency to cause
intestinal gas. There are ways around that – more on this later. And – a
more appetizing prospect – there are delicious ways to include them in
your daily diet than you never thought of You can even insert them into
treats like brownies and ice cream, believe it or not.
Beans versus legumes
A lot of people seem to wonder about the difference between beans and legumes. Well, beans are legumes.
The word “legumes” encompasses seeds, pods, and any other edible part
of a leguminous plant that’s used as food. A leguminous plant is fancy
wording for a member of the pea family.
Legumes
comprise beans, peanuts, peas, and lentils. Beans are the most common
variety of legumes out there, and include the following common
favorites:
- Adzuki beans
- Black beans
- Soybeans
- Anasazi beans
- Fava beans
- Garbanzo beans (commonly known as chickpeas)
- Kidney beans
- Lima beans
Beans
are easy to find at markets around the world. They’re high in protein
and energy and low in fat. They can be incorporated into a wide variety
of foods, everything from being tossed in with salads to being used as a
meat substitute for dishes like chili or meatloaf.
The far-reaching benefits of beans
Conclusive
data shows that beans, thanks to their high levels of antioxidants,
phytochemicals, fiber, and micronutrients, offer a terrific blend of
anti-cancer properties. In particular, regular bean consumption appears
to protect against colorectal, breast, and prostate cancer.
In
one far-reaching study, researchers examined data from 41 countries and
found that beans definitively help stave off all three types of cancer.
Eat beans and your risk of dying from each goes down.
Bean
benefits go beyond that. They’re also known to drop bad cholesterol
levels. And around the globe, legume consumption appears to be one of
the most important predictors of longevity. In a study published in the Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition, researchers found a whopping eight percent reduction in early death for every two tablespoons eaten daily.
Unusual ways to add beans to your diet
According to Dr. Michael Greger, author of How Not to Die and
advocate of a whole-foods, plant-based eating plan, you’ll be at
optimal nutritional potential if you can manage to get three servings of
beans a day. (This includes straight beans, lentils, and peas.)
His
opinion is just a short step up from one of the most comprehensive
analyses ever conducted on diet and cancer and published by the American
Institute for Cancer Research in 2007. They recommended legumes or
whole grains with every meal.
To make that feasible, here are some creative ways to incorporate beans into every meal of the day:
- Mix any type of bean into burgers in place of ground meat
- Puree a can of cannellini beans and add them to your morning oatmeal
- Add chickpeas or cannellini beans to your morning smoothie (it’s a lot better than manufactured protein powder!)
- Blend black beans into your cake or brownie recipe (just cut the required flour in half)
- Use hummus in place of condiments like mayonnaise, ketchup, and tartar sauce
- Mix black beans into your scrambled eggs
- Throw beans into any kind of burrito or taco mixture
- Sprinkle them into any kind of green salad
- Put them on top of any pasta and sauce combination
- Eat beans on toast (it’s a lot like peanut butter toast)
- Smear hummus on your bagel in place of cream cheese
- If you can’t say no to a burger, put a handful of beans right there on top with your pickle and tomato
- Ditch the sour cream dip and potato chips for blended and seasoned bean dip with bean-based chips
- Add beans to any soup or casserole recipe
- Make a healthy version of a quesadilla by toasting a corn tortilla, then mashing canned beans on top with a fork and adding a bit of salsa
And if you want to make things more comfortable…
Now
for the flatulence problem. Here’s something interesting… in studies on
the subject, dairy appears to be a much larger offender for creating
flatulence than beans ever could be. I found that surprising.
Other
research found that when people did report flatulence as a result of
eating beans, it went away by the second or third week of eating them on
a regular basis.
One
explanation may be that your body finds balance after a few weeks of
eating beans. Beans have indigestible sugars that can act as prebiotics
in your colon, feeding your good bacteria, and promoting colon health
(not to mention protecting you from colon cancer!).
If
you’re not open to the two-to-three week experiment, try soaking your
beans overnight in a gallon of water mixed with a quarter teaspoon of
baking soda, then drain and cook as needed. Or, if you boil your beans,
toss out the water you cook them in. This should help lower any
gas-creating effects.
If
time and convenience dictate that you buy canned beans instead of
cooking your own, you’re in luck. Unlike canned vegetables, canned beans
are just as healthy as the home-cooked variety.
But
there’s one hang-up to the canned version: high sodium. So much salt
gets added to canned beans, the sodium levels are one hundred times more
than if you cooked them at home without salt. I don’t worry about salt
myself, but if it’s a concern for you, canned beans may be out.
One
alternative is to drain and rinse your canned beans, which gets rid of
at least half the sodium. But you also rinse away nutrition – that
thick, liquid-like mixture canned beans sit in is packed with nutrients.
Your best bet is to buy no-salt beans whenever possible, and to
incorporate the nutritious liquid into whatever you’re cooking.
Remember, beans are cheap. One study from the Nutrition Journalshowed
spending just 50 cents more per day on healthful foods like beans could
bring a ten percent drop in mortality. Seems like a small price to pay
for such a massive health gain.
Best regards,
Lee Euler,
Publisher
Publisher
References:
- “Beans and Cancer.” Retrieved 14 December 2017 from the Bean Institute.
- “Epidemiological correlations between diet and cancer frequency.” By Correa P. for Cancer Research, 4 September 1981.
- “How Eating Certain Beans Cuts the Risk of These 5 Cancers. By Barbara Minton, 14 January 2015. Natural Society.
- “How Not to Die.” By Michael Greger. December 2015, Flatiron Books.
- “Legume.” Retrieved 15 December 2107. Wikipedia.
- “Legumes: the most important dietary predictor of survival in older people of different ethnicities.” By Darmadi-Blackberry I., et al. Asia Pac J Clin Nutr. 2004;13(2):217-20.
- “List of Legume Foods.” For SFGate.
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