+
Most Shared

16 reasons beans may be the food of the future.

True
Gates Foundation: The Story of Food

Let's get one thing straight here: Beans may get a bad rap, but they're fantastic.

It's not uncommon to hear people say negative things about beans. "They don't give you enough protein! They're gross! They make you fart!" But don't let those naysayers get to you. There are two big things these folks are missing.

This kid is not excited about his beans. Don't be like this kid. Image via iStock.


The first is that the word "bean" doesn't refer to a single food so much as an entire category. A "bean" is simply a large seed from the plant family Fabaceae. "Beans" don't just include black beans or green beans, but also lentils, soybeans, chickpeas, and even peanuts. Yes, peanuts are beans!

The second thing to remember about beans is that they're criticalto global food security, especially in the face of climate change. As our global population continues to expand, it's so important to have a supply of crops that can survive a variety of growing conditions.

A farmer in El Salvador holds beans. Image via Marvin Recinos/AFP/Getty Images.

With those things in mind, let's get to it.

What's all the bean fuss about? Here are 16 reasons why beans are great:

1. Beans are inexpensive.

A can of black beans at most grocery stores in the U.S. will cost you less than a dollar. Even if you're pretty hungry, that's two servings at 50 cents each, tops. Still out of your budget? Opt for dry beans — they're even cheaper.

2. They're high in fiber.

A single cup of boiled lima beans has 13.2 grams of fiber. If you're an adult woman, that's more than half your recommended daily fiber.

3. And they're low in fat.

We all need some fat in our diet to stay healthy, but scientists generally agree that foods naturally low in fat are good for you.

Beans make burritos excellent. Image via iStock.

4. Beans don't require much water to grow.

The production of one gram of bean protein uses about five gallons of water. In contrast, one gram of a starch protein (like rice) uses eight gallons of water, and one gram of beef protein uses 40 gallons of water. This can help farmers preserve water and can protect crops during a drought. Speaking of droughts...

5. Beans can be drought-resistant.

Scientists have recently developed strains of beans that mature faster and use even less water than typical bean crops (qualities that make them more resistant to drought). These strains are already in use in Uganda.

6. They can be heat-resistant, too.

20 years ago, a scientist in Colombia cross-bred the common bean with the tepary bean, which is much more tolerant of heat. Most common beans don't do well in temperatures that stay above 66 degrees, but the heat-resistant hybrid beans thrive. This means that as global temperatures rise, areas where beans can still grow won't shrink as drastically — in fact, bean-viable areas could even expand.

Green bean harvest. Image via iStock.

7. Beans are versatile.

Refried beans, hummus, lentil dumplings, bean burgers, bean brownies, chili, fudge, salsa, lentil soup, samosas, lentil sprouts, doughnuts, bean dip ... you get the idea.

8. And they're delicious.

Don't like hummus or green beans? See above. There's a type of bean dish out there for everyone.

9. Beans are high in iron.

A cup of boiled lentils has about 6.6 mg of iron — about a third of the recommended daily intake for an adult woman. Iron transports oxygen around the body.

10. They're good for your heart.

Remember all that fiber beans have? And all that fat they don't have? Scientists say these qualities help reduce cholesterol and lower your risk of heart disease.

Beans and rice — a classic. Image via iStock.

11. And they're good for your digestion.

Another benefit to high-fiber foods: They "move you" and can help relieve constipation. Hey, that's not a bad thing!

12. Beans are even the subject of rhymes.

Beans, beans, they're good for your heart. The more you eat, the more you fart. The more you fart, the better you feel. So eat your beans with every meal!

13. They are high in zinc.

A single serving (2 tablespoons) of store-bought hummus has 0.55 mg of zinc. Come on, who doesn't love hummus? That's almost 7% of the daily recommended zinc for an adult woman. 7% from a couple spoonfuls of hummus!

Soybeans growing in Germany. Image via Daniel Roland/AFP/Getty Images.

14. Beans have a lot of protein.

A cup of canned black beans? 16 grams of protein. People who don't get enough protein risk a form of malnutrition called kwashiorkor, which is all too common in developing countries. Having access to inexpensive, protein-rich foods is a huge deal for people facing a limited food supply.

15. They're great nitrogen fixers.

More accurately, the bacteria that live on the roots of beans are great nitrogen fixers. This improves the quality of the soil and helps other plants thrive, even long after the beans are gone.

16. They come in many strains.

International seed gene banks hold about 40,000 bean varieties. This variability is a huge deal in a changing climate. Need a bean that tolerates a certain type of soil? A certain temperature or rain level? You've already got hundreds of strains to choose from, and conventional breeding allows scientists to combine and manipulate those traits.

Beans are a big deal for food security.

Let's recap: They're high in protein, they have a multitude of other health benefits, they can survive heat and drought while improving soil quality for future crops, and they're pretty inexpensive.

Sure, beans aren't going to solve the global food crisis on their own. But they're definitely going to be an important crop in the years — and growing conditions — to come. So next time you hear someone being negative about beans, you've got 16 new facts to choose from to change their mind.

Sponsored

ACUVUE launches a new campaign to inspire Gen Z to put down their phones and follow their vision

What will you create on your social media break? Share it at #MyVisionMySight.

True

If you’ve always lived in a world with social media, it can be tough to truly understand how it affects your life. One of the best ways to grasp its impact is to take a break to see what life is like without being tethered to your phone and distracted by a constant stream of notifications.

Knowing when to disconnect is becoming increasingly important as younger people are becoming aware of the adverse effects screen time can have on their eyes. According to Eyesafe Nielsen, adults are now spending 13-plus hours a day on their digital devices, a 35% increase from 2019.1. Many of us now spend more time staring at screens on a given day than we do sleeping which can impact our eye health.

Normally, you blink around 15 times per minute, however, focusing your eyes on computer screens or other digital displays have been shown to reduce your blink rate by up to 60%.2 Reduced blinking can destabilize your eyes’ tear film, causing dry, tired eyes and blurred vision.3

Keep ReadingShow less

Karlie Smith shows the meal she's bringing to the restaurant for her son.

A mom who admitted she packs her 2-year-old a meal when they go out to dinner has started an interesting debate on TikTok about restaurant etiquette and how it applies to young children.

The video posted by Ohio mom, Karlie Smith (unbreakablemomma on TikTok), has received nearly 600,000 views and has over 1,850 comments.

“Call me cheap, call me whatever, but if we’re going out to a restaurant, I’m packing my kid a meal," Smith, 21, said in her post. "I do this for many reasons. On Friday nights, my family and I get together, and tonight, we’re getting food out. My son is not getting food out.”

Keep ReadingShow less
Pop Culture

Man rewatches shows from his childhood and his recaps of the bonkers storylines are priceless

Rob Anderson's hilarious recaps of shows like "Mighty Ducks," "Beethoven," and "7th Heaven" might make you wonder how they got made in the first place.

@hearthrobert/TikTok

These plots makes zero sense.

While there are no doubt some timeless classics from our childhood that remain every bit as amazing as we remember, many are straight-up cringey upon a later viewing. Really, it’s to be expected as societal viewpoints change…sort of a marker of how far we’ve collectively come.

And so, what do we do with these problematic pieces of old-school pop culture? Well, we can certainly update them to better reflect a more modern attitude, but that also comes with a set of potential problems. Or we could simply never watch them again. Certainly an option given all the content out there. But then we might miss an opportunity to better understand what seemed to work for the mainstream then, and why it doesn’t work now.

And then there’s the third option—allow ourselves to be entertained by their cringiness.

That’s certainly the route taken by Rob Anderson. Over on TikTok, Anderson has taken ultra-popular movies and television shows from his childhood and given them hilarious recaps capturing how absurd some of the storylines are.
Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

18-year-old took her college savings and bought the restaurant where she was a dishwasher

Samantha Frye, the newest owner of Rosalie's restaurant, is proving there's more than one way to invest in your future.

Canva

There are many way to invest in your future

Eighteen year old Samantha Frye has traded college life for entrepreneurship, and she has no regrets.

Frye began working at Rosalie's Restaurant in Strasburg, Ohio at 16 as a dishwasher, working up the ranks as a kitchen prep, server, then line cook. All while working a second job, sometimes third job.

After graduating high school, Frye started college at Ohio State with plans of studying business or environmental engineering. But when she came back to work a shift at Rosalie’s for winter break, an opportunity arose—the owners had planned to sell the restaurant.
Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

Woman decides that she is the love of her life and marries herself at her retirement home

“I said, you know what, I’ve done everything else. Why not?”

77-year-old woman decides she's the love of her life and marries herself.

We joke about marrying ourselves or a platonic friend if some arbitrary amount of time has passed without a proposal from an imaginary suitor. And sure, some people do wind up marrying a friend in more of a business arrangement, but it's not very common that someone follows through with marrying themselves.

Dorothy "Dottie" Fideli, decided that she was going to break the mold. The 77-year-old sat down and thought about all of the things she had done in life and who was with her the entire time cheering her on. It was an easy answer: herself. She was her biggest cheerleader, the person who always showed up and the love of her life, so Fideli made the plan to marry herself.

On a beautiful May day, friends and family gathered in the O’Bannon Terrace Retirement Community, where Fideli is a resident, to witness the ceremony.

Keep ReadingShow less
Joy

12-year-old Texas girl saves her family from carbon monoxide poisoning

She knew something was wrong with her mom and brother, which wound up saving her whole family.

Fort Worth 12-year-old helps save family from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Carbon monoxide is called a silent killer for a reason. Many people don't realize they're experiencing carbon monoxide poisoning before it's too late. The gas is colorless and odorless and tends to have a sedating effect that causes people to sleep through the fatal poisoning. Having carbon monoxide detectors is one of the most effective ways to identify the gas before it's too late to get out of the house, but not every home has one.

A little girl in Fort Worth, Texas, experienced a terrifying encounter with the deadly gas, but her quick actions saved her entire family. Jaziyah Parker is being held up as a hero after she realized something was wrong with her family members and called for help.

The girl called 911 after she noticed her mom pass out. On the call with the dispatcher, Jaziyah says she thinks her mother has died before explaining that there was something now wrong with her baby brother, who was just 5-months-old.

Keep ReadingShow less

Drew Barrymore speaks during the FLOWER Beauty launch at Westfield Parramatta on April 13, 2019, in Sydney, Australia.

Drew Barrymore, 48, has been in the public consciousness since she starred as Gertie in 1982’s mega-blockbuster, “E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial,” a performance that earned her an Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actress. So, it makes sense that many people of a certain age feel as if they’ve grown up with her.

Barrymore has consistently starred in hit films and movies that are rewatchable cable-TV staples, such as “Charlie's Angels” (2000), “Never Been Kissed” (1999), “Scream” (1996), “The Wedding Singer” (1998), “50 First Dates” (2004) and “Fever Pitch” (2005).

Now, she’s an even more significant part of people’s lives as the host of “The Drew Barrymore Show,” which runs every weekday on CBS. So far, the show has been a big success, attracting an average of 1.21 million views per show, and ranks as the #4 talk show in syndication. It was recently renewed through the 2024 season.

Keep ReadingShow less