If weight loss is your goal, pulses have pluses

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WAYNE GLOWACKI/WINNIPEG FREE PRESS FINANCE... At a news conference at Voyageur Park Thursday, sisters (left) Trudy Heal and Margaret Hughes owners of Best Cooking Pulses Inc. launch their Manitoba snack food made with peas called Yumpeez. see release. Feb 12 2009

When filling out the checklist of modern trends -- whether driven by nutrition, social conscience or price -- there are few foods that come even close to beans, peas, chickpeas and lentils by way of comparison.

So the doctor is telling you to cut your fat intake and increase your fibre or risk having a heart attack or developing diabetes? Put pulses on the menu.

A one-cup serving of pulses provides almost half of the daily recommended fibre. They are a complex carb with a low glycemic index and generous doses of vitamins and minerals such as folate and iron. They contain antioxidants and they are low in fat.

The results of six clinical trials released at the recent Pulse Health and Food symposium in Toronto showed regular consumption of beans and other pulses contribute to reduced serum cholesterol and triglycerides, two major risk factors for cardiovascular disease. The research also linked pulse consumption to improved arterial health and lower blood pressure.

If weight loss is your goal, eat more pulses. When University of Toronto researchers compared weight loss by people eating pulses regularly against people eating a calorie-reduced diet and receiving dietary advice, they found both groups lost weight and shrunk their waistlines.

But the people eating pulses reduced their calorie and carbohydrate intake without realizing it and without anyone telling them how to do it.

Going vegetarian? Pulses have about twice the protein content of cereal grains.

Craving fast food? There is an increasing selection of pulse-containing snack products showing up at the checkout, including the newly released YUMPEEZ dill- or barbecue-flavoured pea snacks. Researchers have successfully added pea flour to muffins.

Flirting with the 100-Mile Diet? Manitoba is the major bean-producing province in Canada with typically between 200,000 and 300,000 acres devoted to producing red, brown, black and white beans. Of course, without a major cannery, the only way to capitalize on the low food miles is to buy into the Slow Food Movement. Pulses are tailor-made for the slow cooker.

Want to save the environment? Pulses belong to the legume family, which means they work with soil bacteria to produce their own nitrogen fertilizer, reducing the need for commercial nitrogen made from fossil fuel. Research has shown that a crop such as peas will leave a sizeable nitrogen kick in the soil for the following year's crop to use too. What's more, it's stored in a form that is not vulnerable to loss to surrounding air or water.

Including these crops in a rotation increases diversity, which helps farmers control diseases and pests.

They do have one environmental black mark against them, however. They leave little surface residue behind, which leaves the fields that grew them exposed to wind and water erosion.

Of course, there is the somewhat indelicate issue of whether their consumption contributes to global warming through greenhouse gas emissions. But researchers say that's a bum rap.

Science-based analysis has found that's not a problem if people eat pulses as they should: frequent small servings. It is when people pig out on their beans and pork once in a blue moon that the body's digestive system reacts.

Want to feed the world? Some analysts go so far as to say pulse crops are the key to feeding the world's burgeoning population because they are an inexpensive form of nutrition that makes a contribution to environmental health instead of a withdrawal.

But that's only if they undergo a Hollywood-style image makeover.

Canadian pulse growers export 80 to 85 per cent of their production because Canadians on average eat a paltry 3.5 kilograms of them a year.

Even in cultures, such as India and China, where pulses have traditionally been a dietary staple, consumption is dropping as fast as income levels rise. People are choosing to reflect their rising status by replacing traditional diets with the very foods North American dietitians are blaming for rising levels of obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure and Type 2 diabetes.

Researchers who have devoted their careers to proving the nutritional qualities of pulses may have to switch gears if this trend is to be turned.

What beans really need is a study that shows they increase libido, enhance sexual performance and make people feel young again.

So forget the chocolate and flowers this Valentine's Day. Bake up some beans instead. Your loved one's thank you will come from the heart.

Laura Rance is editor of the Manitoba Co-operator. She can be reached at 792-4382 or by email: laura@fbcpublishing.com.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition February 14, 2009 B7