Although the traditional Paleo diet excludes legumes, we include this nutrient dense food group in the CleanStart challenge. Whether you love or hate the bean, lentil, pea, and peanut within this food family, they continuously provide various health benefits with a reasonably small amount of calories. Legumes are filled with crucial vitamins and minerals such as calcium, iron, magnesium, phosphorous, potassium, and vitamin B6 (which plays a key role in numerous metabolic processes within the body). Most importantly, for an overall healthy diet, legumes provide a great source of fiber and protein. This combination packs that extra punch.
The fiber rich legume usually provides 6 to 8 grams of soluble fiber per serving. For reference, a serving of legumes is 1/2 cup of cooked beans or around 1/3 cup of peanuts (1). Women need around 25 grams of fiber per day, and men need around 38 grams. Therefore, adding a side of beans or lentils with your regular fruits and vegetables really ups your fiber intake. Consuming both soluble and insoluble types of fiber is recommended, since fiber is shown to lower risks of disease. Fiber’s benefits continue with lowering cholesterol, and lessening chances of various cancers. Fiber is important in the diet world, as it is shown to foster weight management since it makes you feel fuller longer to curb overeating (2).
In terms of protein, legumes can contain up to 68 grams per cup! Since protein is heavily emphasized within the CleanStart challenge, legumes can be used as a vital source in addition to your regular meat products. A legume side dish can really up your meal’s flavor, snack foods can be replaced with something like crunchy roasted chickpeas, or even make them your entire meal (black bean burgers anyone?).
So why does the traditional Paleo diet exclude legumes if they are so good for us? Some believe that the caveman didn’t eat legumes, although there is evidence to combat this. From an “unhealthy” standpoint, beans contain similar nutrients that grains do. They are a high-carbohydrate food, which is difficult for the body to digest due to their high insulin release (this can trigger fat storage) (3). However, the benefits of legumes do outweigh the cons, and we do allow legumes to be consumed during the CleanStart challenge.
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