Legumes are an important part of the diets of people all over the globe and are often depended upon as a source of nourishment because of their low cost and long shelf life.
They are members of the family Fabacaea, often known as the Leguminosae, which is the family that has the third most species of flowering plants on the planet.
Foods such as beans, lentils, and peanuts are all members of the family of plants known as leguminous plants.
They are crop plants that are often planted in agricultural settings with the purpose of providing food for humans and cattle as well as green manure.
When it comes to agriculture, the whole plant is often put to use, but when it comes to human use, it’s typically the seeds that are consumed.
Contents
What is the legumes family?
In point of fact, the terms “legumes” and “pulses” and “beans” are not interchangeable with one another. The term “legumes” may refer to the stems, leaves, or seed pods of a plant as long as it comes from the family Fabacaea. Legumes are plants that belong to this family.
The term “pulse” refers to the edible seed of a plant that is a member of the family Fabacaea, while the term “bean” refers to a particular kind of edible seed that is a member of the family Fabacaea.
As was said previously, legume plants make up the third biggest species of blooming plants that can be found around the globe.
This family consists of a very wide variety of organisms, ranging from tiny herbaceous plants to enormous trees (and everything in between).
They provide a wide variety of benefits to human beings.
They are not only a common and inexpensive source of food for both people and cattle, but they also supply timber, crop cover for agriculture, and “green manure” to enhance the health of the soil. Other uses for these plants include:
Are lentils legumes?
There are several kinds of legumes, including lentils.
The lens-shaped seed of the plant is what is really consumed as food by humans, despite the fact that the seed of the plant looks completely different.
This plant belongs to a larger family of legumes that is collectively referred to as the Fabacea family. The Fabacea family is one of the most numerous families of flowering plants in the whole globe.
The cuisines of many different nations, most notably those of South Asia, West Asia, and the Mediterranean, all make use of lentils in some capacity.
In comparison to beans, lentils are often considerably more diminutive in size.
Some are cooked while still in their husks while others are not. The kinds that are cooked while still in their husks have a greater propensity to retain their structure after cooking, while the varieties that do not create a thick purée after being cooked.
Lentils are a versatile ingredient that may be used to prepare a wide variety of foods, such as soups, salads, and even bread that is produced from lentil flour.
Canada and India are now responsible for producing the vast majority of the world’s legumes.
Which bean is the most nutritious?
A comparison of six different types of beans reveals that kidney beans are the most nutrient dense, making them more nutritious than black beans, green beans, pinto beans, chickpeas, and soybeans. If we define “most nutritious” as “most nutrient-dense,” then kidney beans are the most nutritious type of bean.
First, let’s define “nutrient density” in foods.
Nutrient density, as defined by nutrientoptimser.com, “tells you how much of the essential minerals, vitamins, amino acids, and fatty acids you get per calorie.” This information is gleaned from the website’s extensive database of various types of foods, each of which is given a nutrient density score.
It helps you acquire the necessary nutrients without causing you to use more energy than necessary.
This does not merely tell you the absolute value of how many vital macronutrients and micronutrients a meal contains; rather, it provides a comparison of the amount of nutrition you receive for a certain number of calories.
In other words, a food with a high nutrient density score will give you “more bang for your buck,” which refers to the fact that the food contains a significant quantity of essential nutrients (vitamins, minerals, essential amino acids, and/or essential fatty acids) despite having a comparatively low number of calories.
This is significant since the current diets of developed countries, such as the so-called “Standard American Diet,” are often highly rich in calories but relatively poor in nutrients. This is why this is important:
Because of this, Dr. Ted Naiman, author of the book The P:E Diet, asserts that obesity and disorders associated to obesity are brought on by an excessive amount of energy (calories) that turns out to be poisonous to the body.
There is always an excess of dietary energy, yet the intake of necessary nutrients is consistently inadequate.
See the following table for a comparison of the nutritional density scores of six different varieties of beans, keeping in mind the concept of “nutrient density:”
| Type of bean | Nutrient density score |
| Black bean | 21/100 (low) |
| Kidney bean | 37/100 (good) |
| Green bean | 35/100 (good) |
| Pinto bean | 31/100 (good) |
| Chickpea | 16/100 (low) |
| Soybean | 24/100 (low) |
Score given by nutrientoptimiser.com based on the density of nutrients
According to this research, when compared to black beans, green beans, pinto beans, chickpeas (also known as garbanzo beans), and soybeans, kidney beans are the kind of bean that has the highest concentration of nutrients.
Additionally, green beans and pintos were given a score of “good” for their nutritional density, which is on par with that of kidney beans.
To have a better understanding of why kidney beans have the highest nutritional density, let’s conduct a more in-depth assessment of the calorie, protein, and micronutrient (vitamin and mineral) content of these six different varieties of beans.
| Type of bean | Nutrient density score | Calories | Protein | Notable vitamin content | Notable mineral content |
| Black bean | 21/100 (low) | 318 | 22g | Vitamin B1 (75% RDA), Vitamin B6 (22% RDA) | Copper (93% RDA), Manganese (46% RDA) |
| Kidney bean | 37/100 (good) | 38 | 4g | Vitamin B1 (31% RDA), Vitamin C (43% RDA) | Copper (18% RDA) |
| Green bean | 35/100 (good) | 32 | 2g | Vitamin A (23% RDA), Vitamin K (36% RDA) | None above 10% RDA |
| Pinto bean | 31/100 (good) | 76 | 5g | Vitamin C (24% RDA), Vitamin B1 (19% RDA) | Manganese (16% RDA), Copper (36% RDA) |
| Chickpea | 16/100 (low) | 364 | 20g | Vitamin B1 (40% RDA), Vitamin B6 (41% RDA) | Copper (73% RDA), Manganese (926% RDA) |
| Soybean | 24/100 (low) | 149 | 13g | Vitamin B5 (19% RDA), Vitamin B6 (28% RDA) | Manganese (31% RDA), Copper (47% RDA) |
The following nutritional information is sourced from nutrientoptimser.com and is based on a serving size of 100 grams.
When compared to the other forms of beans, kidney beans, green beans, and pinto beans have a nutritional density score that is much greater. This is due to the fact that they include a considerable number of calories that are missing from the other bean types.
They have greater nutritional density ratings in spite of the fact that other varieties of beans have a larger absolute quantity of specific nutrients. For instance, in the same volume of bean, black beans have 22 grams of protein, whereas kidney beans contain just 4 grams.
The same volume of chickpeas has roughly ten times as many calories as the same volume of kidney beans. This is because chickpeas have an extraordinarily high level of manganese (926 percent of the daily value!).
Context is of the utmost importance in all aspects of nutrition.
You will get the most out of your diet in terms of nutrition (vitamins, minerals, essential amino acids, and essential fatty acids) if you focus on eating foods that have a high nutrient density. This will allow you to get the most out of your diet without having to consume an excessive amount of calories in order to get the nutrition that you need.
However, if you are underweight or engage in a great deal of physical activity, you will need a diet that contains a greater quantity of energy since you store less of it on your body in the form of body fat.
Protein in black beans
The protein content of black beans is among the highest of any form of bean that may be consumed.
There are 7.6 grams of protein in a typical serving size of black beans, which is half a cup after cooking.
Because of this, black beans are an excellent supplemental source of protein. This is especially true if you combine them with other foods that are rich in protein during the same meal. Additionally, you should only consume black beans if your digestive system and blood sugar regulation are able to handle them.
In my perspective, black beans should not be regarded the only source of protein but rather a source of protein that is consumed with other foods.
The fundamental reason for this is connected to the topic of nutritional density that was covered before; although black beans may supply a respectable quantity of protein, they also provide a sizeable number of calories.
It is considerably more calorie-efficient to get at least part of your daily protein consumption from lean meat (such as chicken breast, fish, lean beef, or turkey), such as when compared to other sources of protein.
In case you missed it, we said up above that a typical serving size of black beans is a half cup, and that amount yields 7.6 grams of protein in addition to 114 calories. This is just to clarify the point.
Chicken breast provides the same amount of protein as other sources, but with just 43 calories per serving. The quantity of calories included in a single serving of black beans is almost equivalent to that of a chicken breast.
Can I eat black beans every day?
If you wish to consume black beans on a daily basis, the following are some of the most important questions you should ask yourself:
- Do you digest black beans well?
- Do you have significant fluctuations in your blood sugar after eating beans?
- Do you take pleasure in consuming black beans?
- If you counted the calories in black beans, do you think you could afford them?
When determining what kinds of foods you want to keep in your own “staple” food rotation, the answers to the issues raised above are essential considerations.
These questions will elicit a variety of responses from individuals given that individuals thrive on and take pleasure in a variety of cuisines.
Determine first whether or not you have problems digesting black beans.
Do you, after consuming them, often suffer symptoms such as the following:
- Excessive gas or bloating
- Constipation or diarrhea
- Intestinal pain
- Joint pain
- Skin irritations
- Recurrence of autoimmune symptoms (if you have an autoimmune disease)
If you frequently experience symptoms of this nature, you may want to experiment with removing black beans from your diet for a period of time to give your digestive tract time to recover. Alternatively, you could try cutting back on the quantity of beans you consume or the number of times per week that you consume them.
Second, after eating black beans, you should evaluate whether or not you experience any significant fluctuations in your blood sugar levels.
Because of the modest quantity of carbs that are included in black beans (20.4 grams per half cup portion), they have the potential to cause some people’s blood sugar to remain abnormally high for an excessively extended period of time after they have eaten.
However, 7.5 of those 20.4 grams come from fiber, which means that the release of glucose into the blood will be somewhat slowed down as a result.
As is the case with everything else, individuals will respond to various meals in a variety of unique ways depending on what they eat.
You should obtain a blood glucose monitor that you can use at home and check your blood sugar levels immediately before and after eating black beans, as well as again two hours after eating so that you can evaluate how well you tolerate black beans.
You also have the option of monitoring your symptoms.
If you feel lethargic after eating, or jittery or lightheaded not long after finishing your beans, this may be a sign that your body has difficulty regulating blood sugar. If you feel lightheaded or jittery shortly after finishing your beans, this may also be a sign that your body has trouble regulating blood sugar.
Third, consider whether or not you really take pleasure in eating black beans.
If you are forcing yourself to eat them because someone on the internet told you that they are a magical “superfood,” my advice would be to relieve yourself of the obligation to eat this food and find another food that is both nutritious and that you actually enjoy eating. If you are forcing yourself to eat them because someone on the internet told you that they are a magical “superfood,” my advice would be to relieve yourself of the obligation to eat this food.
Compliance is the most important factor in dieting.
If you do not find your diet to be enjoyable, it is very unlikely that you will stick with it over the long term, which will prevent you from achieving your objectives.
Fourth, consider whether or not you can “afford” black beans in terms of the number of calories they provide.
If you followed the argument about the nutritional density earlier in the essay, then you should have some understanding of this notion.
Consider the number of calories included in the foods you eat to be a “cost” associated with those items.
If you are overweight, you don’t have much “money” to spend, and you need to get the most “bang for your buck” possible; therefore, you need to pay special attention to nutrient density and prefer foods that deliver the highest amounts of nutrients at the lowest amount of calories. This requires you to pay special attention to nutrient density and prefer foods that deliver the highest amounts of nutrients at the lowest amount of calories.
If you want to reduce weight, you may pick meals like black beans that are high in nutrients, but there are other kinds of foods that have lower amounts of calories that you might choose instead.
FAQs
What beans are not legumes?
The seeds that are gathered from various plants are referred to as beans, whereas a legume is any plant that produces its fruit inside of a pod. The primary distinction between legumes and beans is that beans are obtained from different plants. The name “legume” refers to a group of plants that also includes pulses and beans. Therefore, the term “legume” may be used to any and all beans, but it does not apply to all legumes.
Is a potato a legume?
The potato family is unrelated to the legume family. The fruit or pod of plants belonging to the botanical family Leguminosae is called a legume. In reality, the tuber of the potato, which belongs to the Solanaceae family, is the significantly expanded tip of the potato plant’s subterranean stem. Potatoes are a member of the genus Tuber, which also includes such noteworthy tuberous roots as sweet potato, cassava,…
Is spinach a legume?
The leaves of a plant include things like lettuce, kale, spinach, and cabbage. What about peas and beans? They are less difficult since, in this instance, consumer jargon and botanical terminology are quite similar. The family of plants known as legumes all produce the same kind of fruit, which is a bean (even if a legume is more accurately defined as a sort of bean).
Which vegetables are legumes?
Legumes, which refers to a group of vegetables that includes beans, peas, and lentils, are one of the most adaptable and nutrient-dense types of food that can be purchased. Generally speaking, legumes are low in fat, do not contain any cholesterol, and have a high concentration of folic acid, potassium, iron, and magnesium.
Are legumes inflammatory?
Recent studies have demonstrated that legumes contain bioactive substances such as peptides, polyphenols, and saponins. These compounds have been proven to display biological properties such as anti-oxidation, anti-hypertension, and anti-inflammatory.