beans Archives - Amazing Health Advances

Brownie Sandwich Cookies Recipe

The AHA! Team — Fri, 04 Apr 2025 05:35:21 +0000

Recipe by: Lauren, our Digital Outreach Director via Nutrition Facts – Brownie Sandwich Cookies Recipe Recipe by: Lauren, our Digital Outreach Director Here’s a delicious way to eat your beans! A black bean brownie cookie with a date-sweetened creamy filling. COURSE: Dessert DIFFICULTY: Moderate SERVINGS: 6 Ingredients Cookies ▢½ cup dates, pitted ▢1 ½ cup cooked black beans (or 1-15 oz BPA-free, salt-free can- drained & rinsed) ▢½ cup oats ▢2 tablespoons unsweetened cocoa powder ▢¼ cup raw nut or seed butter ▢2 teaspoons vanilla extract Filling ▢2 tablespoons date syrup ▢2 tablespoons raw nut or seed butter ▢unsweetened soy milk or water, if needed ▢unsweetened cocoa powder, if needed Instructions Preheat oven to 395°F (200°C) Fill a 1 cup measuring cup (240 ml) halfway with dates and add just enough boiling water to cover. Let dates soak for about 10 minutes, while preparing the rest of the ingredients. Place black beans, oats, cocoa powder, peanut butter, and vanilla in a food processor. Add the dates along with the soaking water and process until smooth, and there aren’t big chunks of dates. Using a spoon, divide the batter into 12-24 cookies on a baking sheet lined with a silicon mat or baking paper. Bake for 10 minutes, then remove and let them cool on a cooling rack. For the filling, combine equal parts nut butter and date syrup – about 2 tablespoons (30 – 40 g) of each. The consistency of nut butter can vary, so if the filling is too thick, add a tiny dash of soymilk and if it’s too runny add a little bit of cocoa powder. Sandwich the cookies together using the filling and enjoy! To read the original article click here.

The post Brownie Sandwich Cookies Recipe appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Black Bean Burgers Recipe

The AHA! Team — Wed, 02 Oct 2024 08:35:58 +0000

Recipe by: Dr. Michael Greger & Robin Robertson from The How Not to Die Cookbook – Black Bean Burgers Recipe There can never be enough ways to get beans into your daily meals. This is one of the best. Serve on toasted 100% whole-grain bread with all the fixings. These burgers freeze well, so consider doubling the recipe so you’ll have them ready for just-thaw-and-indulge moments. COURSE: Main Course DIFFICULTY: Easy SERVINGS: 4 INGREDIENTS ▢1 cup old-fashioned rolled oats ▢½ cup walnut pieces ▢1 ¼ inch piece fresh turmeric (or ¼ teaspoon ground) grated ▢½ cup red onion chopped ▢⅓ cup mushrooms chopped ▢1 ½ cup cooked or 1 15-ounce BPA-free can or Tetra Pak salt-free black beans rinsed and drained ▢2 tablespoons tahini or almond butter ▢1 tablespoon ground flaxseeds ▢1 tablespoon nutritional yeast ▢1 tablespoon fresh parsley chopped ▢2 teaspoons white miso paste ▢1 teaspoon onion powder ▢½ teaspoon garlic powder ▢½ teaspoon smoked paprika ▢1 teaspoon Savory Spice Blend INSTRUCTIONS Preheat the oven to 375ºF (190°C). Pulse the oats, walnuts, and turmeric in a food processor until they are finely ground. Add the onion, mushrooms, beans, tahini, and flaxseeds and pulse until well combined. Add the remaining ingredients and pulse to mix well. Pinch some of the mixture between your thumb and index finger to test whether it holds together. If the mixture is too wet, add more oats. If the mixture is too dry, add a little water, 1 tablespoon at a time. Transfer the mixture to a work surface and divide into four equal portions. Shape each into a patty about ½-inch thick and transfer to a plate. Refrigerate for 30 minutes. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper and arrange the burgers on it. Bake until hot and lightly browned, turning once, about 25 minutes. Serve hot, as desired. To read the original article click here.

The post Black Bean Burgers Recipe appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Sweet Potato Taquitos Recipe

The AHA! Team — Wed, 12 Jun 2024 04:32:15 +0000

Recipe by: NutritionFacts – Sweet Potato Taquitos are a delicious way to check-off a few Daily Dozen servings! This dish combines beans, whole grains, spices, and vegetables for a satisfying meal. Top with cashew cream and avocados, if desired. Pair with a green leafy salad to check even more Daily Dozen boxes off. COURSE: Main Course DIFFICULTY: Moderate SERVINGS: 4 INGREDIENTS ▢2½ -3 cups chopped sweet potatoes (about 1 large or 2 medium sweet potatoes) ▢1 cup chopped carrots (about 3 medium carrots) ▢3 cloves garlic, minced ▢1 cup chopped red onion ▢1½ cups cooked black beans ▢1 teaspoon chili powder ▢½ teaspoon onion powder ▢½ teaspoon paprika or smoked paprika ▢½ teaspoon ground turmeric ▢¼ teaspoon black pepper ▢12-14 small corn tortillas ▢Cashew Cream (optional) ▢Avocado (optional) INSTRUCTIONS Boil the potatoes and carrots in 3-4 cups water until soft. Drain the water off. Mash the potatoes and carrots until reaches desired consistency. Feel free to add a splash of unsweetened soy milk or water for a smoother texture. In a pan, sauté the garlic and onion with 2-3 tablespoons of water. Add the spices and cook until the onions are translucent. Stir in the cooked beans. In a bowl, combine the potato and carrot mixture with the black beans mixture. Stir together. Preheat the oven 425F or feel free to use an air fryer with a bake setting. Place a small scoop of the potato and bean mixture on to a tortilla, spread it out, and then roll tightly. Place the seam-side of the tortilla down on a baking sheet lined with a silicon mat or parchment paper (or an air fryer basket). Repeat this process for the remaining tortillas. Bake the tortillas for about 10-15 minutes. Prepare the Cashew Cream, if desired. Thin it out a bit to drizzle on top of the Taquitos or use it as a dip. Optional to top with diced avocado. Enjoy! To read the original article click here.

The post Sweet Potato Taquitos Recipe appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Does a Macrobiotic Diet Help with Diabetes?

AHA Publisher — Fri, 16 Dec 2022 08:00:31 +0000

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM via Nutrition Facts – What happens when you add massive amounts of carbohydrates in the form of whole grains to the daily diet of people with type 2 diabetes? Why are macrobiotic diets apparently so effective at reducing blood sugar levels in diabetics within just a few weeks’ time? The diet is centered around whole grains—brown rice, barley, and millet—so might the high fiber intake improve the gut microbiome, the friendly flora in our colon, which then leads to a reduction in insulin resistance? Or, perhaps it’s because the diet is also rich in vegetables, so that corrects some kind of low-grade acidosis from the high levels of animal protein in their regular (non-macrobiotic) diets. Regardless of the reason, researchers found a significant difference after just 21 days. Can macrobiotic diets also help with longer term blood sugar control? I examine this in my video Flashback Friday: Benefits of a Macrobiotic Diet for Diabetes. How about a six-month dietary intervention with wildly out-of-control blood sugars? As you can see at 0:51 in my video, hemoglobin A1c offers a sense of one’s average blood sugars over the previous few months. An A1c level of 5, for example, would mean that your blood sugars have been in the double digits most of the time over the last few months, indicating that your sugars have been at a normal, healthy, non diabetic level. But, an A1c of 6 is prediabetes territory and 6.5 can be a sign of full-blown diabetes; an A1c under 7 is considered controlled diabetes—what diabetics are striving towards with pills and insulin injections—and a level over 7 is considered out-of-control diabetes. In the macrobiotic diet study, the average A1c level started out off-the-charts at 12.6. The subjects had been averaging blood sugars in the 300s for months, despite all having been on insulin injections. What happened when the study participants were placed on the so-called Ma-Pi 2 diet, a strictly plant-based macrobiotic-style diet centered around whole grains, vegetables, and beans, with some sesame seeds and green tea? After just six months on the diet, their A1c levels dropped from a wildly out-of-control diabetic 12.6 to averaging a non diabetic 5.7. What’s more, although the subjects were getting daily insulin injections when their A1c was an astronomical 12.6, they achieved non diabetic 5.7 on the diet after they had all been able to eliminate their insulin. Within only six months, 100 percent of the study participants started out on insulin with out-of-control diabetes and ended with 0 percent on insulin and averaging non diabetic blood sugars. That’s the power of plants. Also within those six months, three-quarters were off all of their diabetes medications completely. Any side effects? Their bad LDL cholesterol dropped by 20 percent and their triglycerides dropped by nearly 40 percent. (And, of course, let’s not forget that anyone starting a strictly plant-based diet must ensure a regular, reliable source of vitamin B12.) All we needed was a randomized, controlled trial, and we got one: Type 2 diabetics were randomized to the macrobiotic diet versus the recommended American Diabetes Association-type diet. You can see an example of a typical day on the macrobiotic diet below and at 2:59 in my video, which includes a savory whole-grain cake for breakfast; brown rice sesame balls for a snack; a vegetable millet soup with a brown rice salad, a lot of vegetable sides, and adzuki beans for lunch; more whole grain snacks; and, similar to lunch, a dinner of vegetable barley soup with a lot of vegetables and chickpeas; and green tea throughout the day. On the more standard diabetic diet, participants might have low-fat milk and whole-wheat bread for breakfast; a Mediterranean lunch with vegetables and beans; fruit for a snack; and a bean and vegetable soup, whole-grain bread, agretti (a green leafy vegetable), and baked fish for dinner. I have to say, that’s a pretty healthy control diet. The researchers could have compared the macrobiotic diet to a trashy one, but they wanted to stack it up against the diet diabetes groups recommend. So, what happened? The macrobiotic diet won out on every measure of blood sugar control. You can view the numbers in the graph below and at 4:00 in my video. At the start of the study, participants had fasting blood sugars in the 120s. That’s bad, but they were diabetics, after all. Normal fasting blood sugars, like when you wake up in the morning before having breakfast, should be at least in the double digits and under 100. When subjects were put on the relatively healthy, more standard diabetic diet, their blood sugars got better over the three-week study, dropping from the 120s down into the 110s. (That’s the best the American Diabetes Association-type diet can do.) Compare that to an isocaloric macrobiotic diet, meaning with the same number of calories. On the macrobiotic diet, subjects improved within days and achieved normal fasting blood sugars within a week. A full 100 percent of those on the macrobiotic diet got their fasting blood sugars under 110, whereas less than half of those on the diabetes diet did. And, that was achieved while on fewer drugs. In the control group, one participant was able to reduce their oral hypoglycemic medications, whereas five of the seven on such drugs in the macrobiotic group had to stop taking them. Otherwise, if they had continued taking the drugs, their blood sugars would have fallen toolow. So, the macrobiotic diet gave better results on fewer drugs. That’s the power of a reallyhealthy diet. As an aside, what a poke in the eye with a sharp stick this study was to the low-carb crowd! Researchers took diabetics and put them on a 73 percent carbohydrate diet, adding 100 grams of carbs—in the form of grains, no less—to their daily diet. And what happened? Did their blood sugars skyrocket out of control? No, they got significantly better in a matter of days, with average fasting blood sugars starting out at 129 and falling to 95. And, in just three weeks, their bad LDL cholesterol plummeted down to 62, a nearly 48 percent drop. Is the macrobiotic diet perfect? No, but I offer some suggestions for improving it in my video Flashback Friday: Pros and Cons of a Macrobiotic Diet. Key Takeaways Macrobiotic diets have been shown to effectively reduce blood sugar levels in diabetics in just three weeks, perhaps due to its high fiber content or being rich in vegetables. A six-month dietary intervention showed that participants placed on the so-called Ma-Pi 2 diet, a strictly plant-based macrobiotic-style eating regimen with green tea, experienced significant improvements in their A1c levels, dropping from a wildly out-of-control diabetic 12.6 to averaging a non diabetic 5.7. As well, the subjects achieved non diabetic 5.7 on the diet after they had eliminated their insulin. Additionally, their bad LDL cholesterol dropped by 20 percent and their triglycerides dropped by nearly 40 percent. When type 2 diabetics were randomized to the macrobiotic diet versus the recommended American Diabetes Association-type diet, the macrobiotic diet won out on every measure of blood sugar control. And, although only one subject in the control group was able to reduce their oral hypoglycemic medications, five of the seven on such drugs in the macrobiotic group had to stop taking them lest their blood sugars fall too low. The study was likely very eye-opening to low-carb followers since the diabetics were put on a 73 percent carbohydrate diet, adding 100 g of carbs to their daily diet, and not only did their blood sugars improve, but their bad LDL cholesterol also plummeted. To read the original article click here.

The post Does a Macrobiotic Diet Help with Diabetes? appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Why I Include Lentils in My Prebiotic Recipe

AHA Publisher — Fri, 09 Sep 2022 07:00:23 +0000

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM via Nutrition Facts – Lentils and chickpeas, also known as garbanzo beans, are put to the test. If you compared the total antioxidant content of ten different legumes, which do you think would come out on top? Researchers looked at the “pinto bean, baby lima bean, red kidney bean, black kidney bean [what I believe we more commonly know as black bean], navy bean, small red bean, black eyed bean [black-eyed pea], mung bean, lentil, and chickpea.” Who can guess the winner and the loser? As you can see at 0:33 in my video Benefits of Lentils and Chickpeas, lima beans came in at number ten at the bottom of the list. Then came navy beans, black-eyed peas, and mung beans, which is what bean sprouts are typically made from, in seventh place. Moving into the winner’s circle, kidney beans. I’ll bet many would have guessed those to be our number one, but, no. They came in sixth, in the middle of the pack. Five legumes beat them out: pinto beans, black beans, the bronze to small red beans, the silver to chickpeas (garbanzo beans), and the gold to lentils. As you can see below and at 1:17 in my video how lentils pull away from the pack in terms of scavenging up free radicals. Lentils top the charts based on a variety of different measures. Might it be because they’re so small and their nutrients are concentrated in the seed coat, so smaller means more surface area? That would be my guess. When pitted against cholesterol in vitro to try to prevent oxidation, lentils also seem to stand out, perhaps making it “the best among all tested food legumes for the development of a dietary supplement for promoting heart health and for preventing cancers”—or you could just have some lentil soup. (They are the L in my BROL prebiotic mix recipe featured in How Not to Diet and The How Not to Diet Cookbook.) “Aside from lentils, black beans, black soybeans, and red kidney beans” were also found to top the list. As you can see below and at 2:05 in my video, the ingredients of a breakfast made up of a bagel, cream cheese, margarine, egg, cantaloupe, and whole milk. What would happen if you also served either a bowl of black bean soup, just the amount of fiber found in that bowl of soup, orjust the amount of antioxidants found in that bowl of soup? Which do you think works better? Whole plant foods can be greater than the sum of their parts. “Nowadays, it is popular to isolateand sell functional components of foods as dietary supplements and many supplements are marketed for their ‘antioxidant’ properties. However, functional ingredients”—the extracted ingredients—“may not produce the same effects when delivered outside a whole food matrix” or form. In one study, for example, the researchers compared “the ability of black beans to attenuate postprandial [after-meal] metabolic, oxidative stress, and inflammatory responses [to a crappy breakfast] and determine relative contributions of dietary fiber and antioxidant capacity to the overall effect.” Well, it’s kind of a no-brainer. “Overall, the inclusion of black beans in a meal improved postprandial metabolic responses…that could not be explained by either the fiber or antioxidant fractions alone.” Beans can even affect our responses to subsequent meals. When our body detects starch in our small intestine, it slows down rate at which our stomach empties. That makes sense, since the body wants to finish digesting before the next meal comes down the pike. So, researchers “hypothesized that eating a slowly digestible starch, such as lentils, may trigger these potent…mechanisms to result in a sustained delaying effect on gastric [stomach] emptying.” You can see below and at 3:34 in my video, a graphic showing the stomach emptying rate at a second meal consumed four and a half hours after eating a “premeal of either lentils or bread,” a quickly digesting starch. The chart doesn’t show how fast your stomach empties itself of the premeal, but how fast it empties a second meal eaten hours after you ate those lentils or that bread. So what happened? A premeal of lentils significantly slowed stomach emptying of a second meal compared with a premeal of quickly digestible bread. In fact, the lentil premeal slowed stomach emptying by about an hour, which means you would feel that much fuller for that much longer after lunch, simply because you had some beans for breakfast. And, when all the fiber and resistant starch make it down to the large intestine, they can feed the good bacteria in our colon. Researchers fed people a little over a cup of canned chickpeas a day, and, in just three weeks, some of the bad bacteria, the “pathogenic” and “putrefactive bacteria,” got crowded out, nearly halving the number of people colonizing a high ammonia-producing bacteria, indicating that chickpeas “have the potential to modulate the intestinal microbiome to promote intestinal health in humans” within a matter of weeks. I’ve since expanded my BROL prebiotic mix to include hulled purple barley and rye berries. Together with oat groats and beluga lentils, they form the base for many a sweet and savory dish in the Greger household. Key Takeaways Total antioxidant content of ten legumes, from most to least: lentils, garbanzo beans (chickpeas), small red beans, black beans, pinto beans, kidney beans, mung beans, black-eyed peas, navy beans, and lima beans. Lentils also stand out when pitted against cholesterol in vitro to try to prevent oxidation, making them “the best among all tested food legumes for the development of a dietary supplement for promoting heart health and for preventing cancers”—but why not just eat lentils themselves? Although extracts, dietary supplements, and the like are popular, whole plant foods can be greater than the sum of their parts. When researchers compared black beans to an unhealthy breakfast, the beans were found to improve after-meal metabolic responses “that could not be explained by either the fiber or antioxidant fractions alone.” Beans, such as lentils, can also slow stomach emptying of a subsequent meal, leaving you feeling much fuller for longer. The fiber and resistant starch in beans also feed the good bacteria in our colon, thereby crowding out our bad “pathogenic” and “putrefactive” bacteria. To read the original article click here.

The post Why I Include Lentils in My Prebiotic Recipe appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Are Lectins in Food Good or Bad for You?

AHA Publisher — Mon, 22 Mar 2021 07:00:57 +0000

Michael Greger M.D. FACLM via NutritionFacts – Might lectins help explain why those who eat more beans and whole grains have less cancer? Lectins are to blame for the great “white kidney bean incident” of 2006 in Japan. One Saturday evening, a TV program introduced a new method to lose weight. The method was simple: toast some dry, raw, white kidney beans in a frying pan for three minutes, grind the beans into a powder, and then dust it onto rice. Within days, a thousand people fell ill, some with such severe diarrhea and vomiting they ended up in the hospital. Why? Lectin poisoning. Three minutes of dry heat is not enough to destroy the toxic lectins in kidney beans. If you don’t presoak them, you need to boil large kidney beans for a full hour to completely destroy all the lectins, though if you first soak them overnight 98 percent of the lectins are gone after boiling for just 15 minutes and all are gone by half an hour, as you can see at 0:44 in my video Are Lectins in Food Good or Bad for You?. And, indeed, when researchers tested the white beans, they found that toasting them for three minutes didn’t do a thing. It’s no wonder people got sick. But, 95 percent of the lectins were inactivated after boiling them for three minutes and completely inactivated after ten minutes of boiling. Evidently, “‘Do not eat raw beans’ is a traditional admonition in Japan to prevent intestinal problems”—and now we know why. While canning may completely eliminate lectins from most canned beans, some residual lectin activity may remain in canned kidney beans, though apparently not enough to result in toxicity. And, ironically, “How doses of lectins may be beneficial by stimulating gut function, limiting tumor growth, and ameliorating obesity.” What? I thought lectins were toxic. For as long as people have speculated dietary lectins are harmful, others have conjectured that they may be protective. “If this theory is correct, appropriate lectins by mouth should be of use in the prophylaxis [prevention] (and possibly treatment) of colon cancer.” Or, of course, we could just eat our beans. Interest in the purported antitumor effect of plant lectins started with the discovery in 1963 that lectins could distinguish between cancer cells and normal cells. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital found a substance in wheat germ—the lectin in whole wheat—that appeared to be “tumor cell specific,” clumping together the tumor cells, while the normal cells were left almost completely alone. In fact, it is so specific that you can take a stool sample from someone and, based on lectin binding to the colon lining cells that get sloughed off into the feces, effectively predict the presence of polyps and cancers. Subsequently, it was discovered that lectins couldn’t only distinguish between the two types of cells, but also extinguish the cancer cells, while largely leaving the normal cells alone. For example, that same white kidney bean lectin, as you can see at 2:53 in my video, was found to almost completely suppress the growth of human head and neck cancer cells, liver cancer cells, breast cancer cells, and cervical cancer cells (at least most of the way), within about three days—but that was in a petri dish. Those petri dish studies are largely the basis of the evidence for the antitumor activity of plant lectins. How do we even know dietary lectins are absorbed into our body? Colorectal cancer is one thing. The fact that lectins can kill off colon cancer cells in a petri dish may be applicable, since lectins we eat may come in direct contact with cancerous or precancerous cells in our colon, “providing a mechanism” by which bean consumption may help in “the prevention and treatment of colorectal cancer.” Even more exciting is the potential for effectively rehabilitating cancer cells. The “loss of differentiation and invasion are the histological hallmarks of malignant cells,” meaning that when a normal cell transforms into a cancer cell, it tends to lose its specialized function. Breast cancer cells become less breast-like, and colon cancer cells become less colon-like. What these researchers showed—for the first time—is that the lectin in fava beans could take colon cancer cells and turn them back into looking more like normal cells. As you can see at 4:13 in my video, before exposure to the fava bean lectins, the cancer cells were growing in amorphous clumps. But, after exposure to the fava bean lectins for two weeks, those same cancer cells started to go back to growing glandular structures like normal colon issue. Therefore, dietary lectins or putting them in a pill “may slow the progression of colon cancer,” potentially helping to explain why dietary consumption of beans, split peas, chickpeas, and lentils appears to reduce the risk of colorectal cancer based on 14 studies involving nearly two million participants. Okay, but what about cancers outside of the digestive tract? “Although lectin containing foods,” like beans and whole grains, “are frequently consumed cooked or otherwise processed, these treatments may not always inactivate the lectins…For example, lectins have been detected in roasted peanuts….” Peanuts are legumes, and we don’t tend to eat them boiled but just roasted or even raw. Are we able to absorb the lectins into our system? Yes. As you can see at 5:12 in my video, within an hour of consumption of raw or roasted peanuts, you can detect the peanut lectin in the bloodstream of most people. Same with tomatoes. Some of the non-toxic lectin in tomatoes also makes it down into our gut and into our blood. Wheat germ agglutinin, the wheat lectin known as WGA, doesn’t seem to make it into our bloodstream, though, even after apparently eating the equivalent amount of wheat germ in more than 80 slices of bread. And, if you ate something like pasta, the boiling in the cooking process might wipe out the lectin in the first place anyway. In terms of phytochemicals in the fight against cancer, lectins are able to “resist digestion resulting in high bioavailability,” potentially allowing “the cellular mechanisms of the host to utilize the full potential of the…dramatic anti-cancer benefits” lectins have to offer. But, these dramatic benefits have yet to be demonstrated in people. We do know, however, that population studies show “that the consumption of a plant-based diet is strongly associated with a reduced risk of developing certain types of cancer.” People eating a plant-based diet could just be eating fewer carcinogens, but plants do have all those active components that do seem to protect against the “initiation, promotion, or progression” of cancer. So, maybe lectins are one of those protective compounds. We know people who eat more beans and whole grains tend to get less cancer overall, but we’re just not sure exactly why. Now, you could say, “Who cares why?” Well, Big Pharma cares. You can’t make as much money on healthy foods as you can on “lectin based drugs.” This article has been modified. To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Greger click here.

The post Are Lectins in Food Good or Bad for You? appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Healthy Plant-Based Diet Associated With Lower Stroke Risk

AHA Publisher — Thu, 18 Mar 2021 07:00:12 +0000

Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health via EurekAlert – Boston, MA – People who eat diets with higher amounts of healthy plant-based foods and lower amounts of less-healthy plant-based foods may reduce their risk of stroke compared to people with lower-quality diets, according to a new study led by researchers from Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. They found that healthy plant-based diets–defined as rich in foods such as leafy greens, whole grains, and beans, and including lower levels of foods like refined grains, potatoes, and added sugars–may lower overall stroke risk by up to 10%. “Our findings have important public health implications, suggesting that future nutrition policies to lower stroke risk should take the quality of food into consideration,” said first author Megu Baden, a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Nutrition. The study will be published online March 10, 2021, in Neurology, the medical journal of the American Academy of Neurology. Evidence suggests that plant-based diets may lower the risk of diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and other diseases; however, few studies have looked at whether these diets lower the risk of stroke, and their results have been inconsistent. In this study, researchers analyzed health data from 209,508 women and men in the Nurses’ Health Study, Nurses’ Health Study II, and Health Professionals Follow-Up Study, who did not have cardiovascular disease or cancer at the start of their participation. They were followed for more than 25 years and completed diet questionnaires every two to four years. Participants were scored on diet quality based on the healthfulness of the plant-based foods that they ate. People who ate a serving or less of meat or fish per month were classified as vegetarians. The researchers found that a healthy plant-based diet–in addition to being linked with 10% lower overall stroke risk–was associated with a modest reduction in risk of ischemic stroke, the most common type of stroke, which occurs when blood flow to the brain is blocked. There was no association found between a healthy plant-based diet and reduced risk of hemorrhagic stroke, which occurs when an artery in the brain leaks blood or ruptures. In a separate analysis, the researchers did not find any association between a vegetarian diet and lowered risk of stroke, although they noted that the number of study participants classified as vegetarians was small. The researchers suggested that this result–as well as inconsistent results in prior studies looking at plant-based diets and stroke risk–may in part be explained by a high proportion of low-quality plant-based foods in participants’ diets. “Many individuals have been increasing the amount of plant-based components in their diet,” said Kathryn Rexrode, associate professor of medicine at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and co-author of the paper. “These results show that higher intake of healthy plant-based foods may help reduce long-term stroke risk, and that it is still important to pay attention to diet quality of plant-based diets.” To read the original article click here.

The post Healthy Plant-Based Diet Associated With Lower Stroke Risk appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Turkey Chili with Adzuki Beans Recipe

AHA Publisher — Thu, 05 Nov 2020 08:00:42 +0000

Dr. Josh Axe, DC, DMN, CNS – Fall weather calls for chili making, and this white turkey chili recipe with adzuki beans will hit the spot. With not one, but two kinds of turkey, and a hint of smokiness from paprika, you’ll want to enjoy a piping hot bowl by a bonfire. This is a Texas-style chili: heavier on the meat. So invite the meat-lovers in your life, and show them that eating healthy doesn’t have to mean giving up their favorite food! Key Healthy Ingredients Is turkey chili good for a diet? If you use the right ingredients like this turkey chili recipe calls for, it’s a resounding yes! This turkey chili recipe features adzuki beans, the red bean traditionally used in Asian cuisine. Adzuki beans are a part of the healing diet because they contain lots of iron (about 25 percent of your recommended daily intake in this recipe), magnesium, potassium, zinc and folic acid. If you’ve ever experienced an iron deficiency, you know that getting enough of this essential mineral can up your energy, help you sleep better and help you maintain a positive mood. Those are all good things when the days are getting shorter. Did you also know that eating iron-rich animal sources of food along with plant-based foods can help your body absorb the iron even better? So chili, with its combination of meat and beans, is an iron powerhouse. What kind of meat is best for chili? You can use the traditional ground beef (so long as it’s grass-fed) or chicken, but turkey is the meat of choice for this recipe because it offers lean protein as well as iron and healthy fat. You want to look for organic, pasture-raised turkey to be sure you’re getting the most nutritious protein food. You’ll get the benefits of improved mood, more energy and stronger muscles. The bottom line: If you’re craving chili this season, listen to your body! It might be telling you to eat the perfect food for what it needs. How to Make Turkey Chili How do you make turkey chili from scratch? This turkey chili recipe makes it easy, whether you want to use a stock pot or are looking for a turkey chili slow cooker recipe. We’ll start by soaking the adzuki beans overnight in water and whey or apple cider vinegar. This breaks down antinutrients that prevent your body from absorbing the good stuff, and it preserves the good nutrients since it means you don’t have to cook the beans as long in the chili. After a good soak, drain and rinse the beans. Now comes the fun part: layering the flavors of the turkey chili. You’ll start by boiling the beans in some low-sodium broth and salt (starting with low-sodium broth or salt-free homemade chicken bone broth and adding salt as needed means you can control the sodium level better). Once those have simmered for a while, add the pulled smoked turkey, diced tomatoes (with the juice) and spices. While that’s simmering, grab a skillet and sauté the ground turkey and red onions in butter or coconut oil — flavor layer number two! When the ground turkey has lost most of its pinkness, add the green peppers and garlic. Continue cooking until the turkey is browned and cooked through. Add the ground turkey and vegetables to the chili and let it simmer for 15–20 minutes. You want the flavors to marry and the consistency to slightly thicken. You can taste it at this point and see if it needs salt or more spice. Add chili powder if you’d like more spice. This is a good time to get your toppings ready, which will make this stew really shine. Try avocado, goat milk yogurt, salsa or green onions — or all of them! Once the turkey chili is ready, ladle it into bowls, top it to your liking and enjoy. If you have any leftovers (which I highly doubt you will if you’re serving four to five people), refrigerate it, and the flavor will be even better over the next few days. If you want more of a set-it-and-forget-it recipe, you can make this a slow cooker turkey chili recipe as well. Simply add the ingredients into your slow cooker, let it stew for a few hours (or even more) and — viola! — you have slow cooker turkey chili. Similar Recipes Looking for other healthy chili recipe variations? Try these recipes: Buffalo Chili Recipe Slow Cooker Bison Chili Recipe Paleo Chili Recipe — With or Without Meat! White Chicken Chili Recipe Turkey Chili with Adzuki Beans Recipe Author: Dr. Josh Axe Prep Time: 5 min Cook Time: 70 min Total Time: 1 hour 15 minutes Yield: 4–5 1x Diet: Gluten Free DESCRIPTION Turkey chili with adzuki beans is packed with protein and iron and sure to warm you on a chilly night. Try this healthy turkey chili recipe! INGREDIENTS 1 cup dry adzuki beans 4 cups filtered water ¼ cup whey from yogurt or 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar 4 cups low-sodium chicken or turkey broth ¾ teaspoon sea salt ½ pound smoked turkey, pulled 32 ounces diced canned tomatoes, sugar & BPA free 1 tablespoon chili powder 2 teaspoons smoked paprika 1 teaspoon cumin 1 pound ground turkey 1 tablespoon grass-fed butter or coconut oil 1 large red onion, diced 2 green peppers, diced 3 medium garlic cloves, pressed or minced INSTRUCTIONS Soak adzuki beans overnight in the filtered water with the whey or vinegar. Drain and rinse after soaking. In a large pot or dutch oven, combine the beans with the broth and salt. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat, cover and simmer for 30 minutes. Add the pulled smoked turkey, tomatoes, chili powder, smoked paprika and cumin to the beans. Stir to incorporate and continue to simmer while completing the next step. In a skillet over medium-high heat, sauté the ground turkey and onion in butter or coconut oil. When the turkey is half done, add the green peppers and garlic. Continue to sauté until the turkey is browned. Add the ground turkey and vegetables to the chili and simmer, uncovered, for 15–20 minutes, until the chili is slightly thickened. Taste for seasoning and add salt for flavor or chili powder for more spice. Enjoy with avocado, goat’s milk yogurt, salsa or green onions. Flavor will improve over the next few days. NOTES You can save some energy and make this recipe in a slow cooker, though it’ll take longer overall. Feel free to adjust this recipe using a meat of your choice, or try a vegetarian version with some added beans or a plant-based protein of your choosing. Cook time does not include soaking the beans overnight. NUTRITION Serving Size: 1 bowl Calories: 900 Sugar: 7.3g Sodium: 731mg Fat: 65.5g Saturated Fat: 18.7g Unsaturated Fat: 46.8g Trans Fat: 0g Carbohydrates: 40g Fiber: 10.2g Protein: 40.2g Cholesterol: 144mg To read the original article click here. For more articles from Dr. Axe click here.

The post Turkey Chili with Adzuki Beans Recipe appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.

Need a Heart Health Boost? Try Legumes

AHA Publisher — Thu, 28 Nov 2019 08:00:41 +0000

Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine via EurekAlert – New research says beans, beans, they’re good for the heart. WASHINGTON–Consuming beans, lentils, peas, and other legumes reduces the risk for cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, and high blood pressure, according to a review published in Advances in Nutrition. Researchers reviewed prospective cohort studies that assessed consumption of legumes on the risk for cardiometabolic diseases and related markers. The study found that those who consumed the most legumes reduced incidence rates for cardiovascular disease, coronary heart disease, and hypertension by as much as 10 percent when compared to those with the lowest intakes. “Cardiovascular disease is the world’s leading–and most expensive–cause of death, costing the United States nearly 1 billion dollars a day,” says study co-author Hana Kahleova, MD, PhD, director of clinical research for the Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine. “This study shows that an inexpensive, accessible, and common pantry staple could help change that: beans.” Beans and other legumes benefit cardiovascular health because they are high in fiber, plant protein, and other micronutrients, but low in fat, free of cholesterol, and low on the glycemic index, according to the study authors. The Dietary Guidelines for Americans says that Americans are not eating enough legumes and recommends eating about three cups per week. The average American consumes less than a cup a week. “Americans eat less than one serving of legumes per day, on average,” adds Dr. Kahleova. “Simply adding more beans to our plates could be a powerful tool in fighting heart disease and bringing down blood pressure.” Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death in the U.S., responsible for approximately 1 in every 4 deaths. About 1 in 3 U.S. adults suffer from hypertension. To read the original article click here.

The post Need a Heart Health Boost? Try Legumes appeared first on Amazing Health Advances.