“I was reading your blog on how to lose 20 pounds in 30 days. What’s the big deal about beans? They contain 75% carbs and add roughly the same amount of calories that other carbs provide. Why would this differ from “white” carbs like brown rice or potatoes?”
Beans and legumes are loaded with fiber. In fact, usually at least half the carbs in beans and legumes are from fiber. When you’re counting carbs you deduct the grams of fiber from the grams of carbohydrates to arrive at your net impact carbs. You see, the fiber is not absorbed. You don’t digest it. It is simply there for the ride and nothing more. Therefore it simply does not count when it comes to carbs.
Another benefit to eating foods loaded with fiber is the fiber slows down the rest of the food as it passes through your digestive tract. That makes it slow digesting (which equates to being very low on the glycemic index). This means that your body does not need to produce as much insulin to digest the food and that means that your blood sugar stays more stable. (The rise and fall of blood sugar has a great deal to do with our energy levels and how much we eat and/or over eat. Stable blood sugar means stable energy levels and fewer cravings.
Slower digesting carbs (those lower on the glycemic index) also mean that the calories in the foods you eat are more likely to be burned during digestion rather than stored as energy for later in the form of fat. We’ve all heard the story about celery having negative calories, right? There is so much fiber and water in the celery that the few calories that are actually in it are burned up when your body tries to digest it. That is a simple case of a slow digesting carb.
So that’s the deal with beans.
True that the more you eat, the more you toot, but they really can work some magic!