Lower Your Cholesterol with Beans

Pinto Beans
Originally uploaded by Wade From Oklahoma

According to findings published in the November issue of the Journal of Nutrition, eating as little as one half cup of beans per day can help lower your total cholesterol. These results confirm earlier studies that said eating beans lowers cholesterol, but the more research will need to be done to explain why this happens.

For three months, eighty volunteers were randomly split in to two groups. One group added one half cup of pinto beans to their diet while the other group added chicken soup instead. Measurements after the three months showed that the volunteers who ate the beans had lower cholesterol levels, regardless if they had healthy or poor cholesterol levels before.

Two Week Update

Sop Kacang Merah
Originally uploaded by ^-^liz

As promised, here is my two week update on how I'm doing on the How to Lose 20 lbs. of Fat in 30 Days… Without Doing Any Exercise eating plan. I'd like to start off by saying that I am exercising, even if I'm just doing a modest amount of walking each day. I set my initial goal at 100 minutes per week, but I've actually done more than that and need to reassess my goal.

Breakfast
This is the meal that is really killing me. Eggs and peppers for breakfast is not big deal, but a cup of beans too? I've tried mixing them in to the omelet, but it just doesn't come naturally. Tim, the eating plan's author, mentioned this problem on his blog.

Breakfast is usually the hardest meal for most to modify, as we’re a country of toast and cereal-eating junkies. Moving to slow carbs and protein requires a more lunch-like meal for breakfast.

He also mentioned that its important for your breakfast calories to be atleast 30% protein. I'm seriously considering making a protein shake that I saw in this month's issue of Men's Health magazine that includes blueberries, peanut butter and whey protein. A shake for breakfast would fit more with my routine then a huge omelet.

Lunch
I've found that eating one cup of broccoli with one cup of kidney beans for lunch every day (with whatever meat I cooked that Sunday) is really working for me. It keeps me full way in to the evening and I don't even need the snack I used to crave at about three in the afternoon every day.

Dinner
Eating a large salad with beans and meat for dinner has really been making my evenings as well. I haven't tried Tim's suggestions for wine and an orange at bed time, because frankly, I'm not hungry (and I don't care for wine). Dinner time also gives me a chance to experiment with other beans. I've tried pinto, buttered, roman and garbanzo beans now. My favorite are habichuelas coloradas guisadas (Puerto Rican stewed dry red beans) that my mother-in-law graciously made for me in bulk when she visited this month. Since they have some tomato-based sauce, it makes a good salad dressing as well.

Cheat Day
I really feel this part of the eating plan was killing my progress. I'd work all week to get the scale down and then Sunday morning, it would jump back up to near where it was the week before. This week, instead of dedicating a whole day to cheating, I set aside one meal to eating junk food. I got the idea to treat, not cheat, from an article in the San Diego Union-Tribune.

All in all, I'm really enjoying this eating plan. This is the first time that I've stuck to a diet and not found my stomach grumbling in protest. I still look at bread longingly, but thats only because my wife isn't following the same plan. It is hard to eat a specific way like this when your house is full of things you can't eat. Ah, c'est la vie.

The Magical Fruit

Spilling the Beans
Originally uploaded by Roger Smith

When I first started this eating plan, I seriously increased the amount of beans in my diet. It went from an occasional side dish to one cup at every meal. While I was thrill with the weight loss, my wife wasn't too pleased with the... *ahem* super gaseous releases.

Beans contain indigestible sugars, so when they reach our intestines, the bacteria that live there go wild. The have quite a feast and the result is lots of gas. Its the same process that makes beer bubbly and bread rise. Except inside of the human body, its much less pleasant.

In addition to over-the-counter remedies for gas, dieters can also try gentler beans like lima beans and split peas. Lee Perkins, president of the Pacific Grain and Foods in California, recommends mixing beans with other foods to help digestion.

Adding an enzyme by including a carrot or onion can help break down the complex sugars to simple sugars...