The Advantages of Dried Beans
By Dr. Oz and Dr. Roizen, MDs
Joe Bean, Colter Bean, and Billy Bean were baseball players in 1902, the 1980-1990s, and the 2000s, respectively. Their careers were a mixed bag from almost-made-it to much-traded to, in the case of Billy Bean, Major League Baseball's first Ambassador for Inclusion.
It turns out that Beans are a mixed bag, on and off the field. Ranging from adzuki to black, cannellini, cranberry, great northern, kidney, mung, navy, and pinto varieties, beans contribute protein, fiber, a range of B (folate, B6, thiamine) and other vitamins, as well as magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, zinc, and potassium.
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Most people dish up canned beans. But if you prepare dried beans, you get a better texture and more nutrients, and dodge the excess sodium and hormone disruptors in the linings of canned foods.
Here are three easy steps for cooking dried beans:
1. Pick through and clean up dried beans; rinse in cold water.
2. Soak in cold water overnight or boil in water, remove from heat, and soak for two hours; drain.
3. Put beans in a pan of cold water, covered plus 2 inches; simmer, stir occasionally for one to two hours or more.
The rewards:
• A serving of boiled beans has 58% of the daily value of folate vs. canned beans' 23%, and 19% of the daily value of vitamin K vs. 13% for canned.
• A 1-cup serving of boiled kidney beans has 22% of the daily value for iron, 19% for magnesium, and 12% for zinc vs. 17% daily value of iron and magnesium and 8% zinc for canned beans.