Legumes a Superfood - 15

SPEAKER A The following program presents principles designed to promote good health and is not intended to take the place of personalized, professional care. The opinions and ideas expressed are those of the speakers. Viewers are encouraged to draw their own conclusions about the information presented. SPEAKER B Welcome to healthy living. I'm your host, Margot Marshall. How amazing would a food need to be to be honored by the United Nations for a whole year? That is. It declared 2016 as International Year of Pulses. That's another name for beans or legumes. Stay tuned as Dr. Eddie Ramirez tells us what makes them so amazing. SPEAKER C Healthy Living is a 13 part production of 3ABN Australia television, focusing on the health of the whole person body, mind, and spirit. You'll learn natural lifestyle principles with practical health solutions for overall good health. SPEAKER B Um, pulses, legumes, beans, call them what you will. They are a staple in many poor countries, and maybe it's time developed countries took notice of the benefits of them. Besides being so cheap, there would have to be some compelling reasons why the United Nations has declared 2016 as International Year of Pulses. Let's ask our guest, Dr. Eddie Ramirez, what they are. Welcome, Eddie. SPEAKER D Thank you. Pulses are a very important food around the world. You know, experts, especially in the field of nutrition, they try to understand what kind of food could we promote that it can meet necessary needs in the nutrition factors and at the same time be economically low so that most people could acquire them. SPEAKER B Okay. SPEAKER D And after you analyze the different food groups, you realize the importance of beans and pulses in the diet. And that's why they are being promoted all over the world as the food of the Year, because we know it can meet many of the needs of those people in that way. SPEAKER B Yes, well, it's just interesting that they've been a staple in other countries, but how great they'd be if we there's lots of other good reasons, not just because they're cheap, not just about sustainability. What makes them such a great food? SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER B What is it? Tell us some of the things. SPEAKER D See, in some areas in the world. I mean, I travel very much. SPEAKER B You do? SPEAKER D My last count is 49 countries that. SPEAKER B I've been to and 25 last year. SPEAKER D Just 25 last year? Yes. So as you travel around, you see that economics vary quite a bit. When you compare Australia to some countries in Asia, for example, I mean, the economic disparities is quite big, and people there have trouble acquiring certain foods. And especially today, if you are on a plant based diet, I want you to listen the whole length of this program because I'm going to give you some very important information. See, legumes are an essential component of a healthy diet. And unfortunately, especially in the Western world, statistics show that actually their consumption is actually decreasing, not increasing. So that international guideline all the way from the united nations. It not only applies to those countries in which there are economic challenges, but it also applies to the developed countries in which they need to meet those necessary needs. SPEAKER B Yes, and you mentioned if you're on a vegetarian diet, we need to pay attention. I'm going to suggest that if you're not on a vegetarian diet, you really need to pay attention too. SPEAKER D Absolutely. SPEAKER B We'll work out why as you go along through your talk, everybody needs to be including beans more so if you eat meat, more so. SPEAKER D There was an interesting study just published a couple of years ago in which they got average Australians, a group of 100 plus of them, and what they did, they just ask him one thing. I want you to add one can of garvanzos per day to your diet. SPEAKER B One can. SPEAKER D Very simple, nothing complicated. It's not expensive, it's simple. And at the end of the research period, which was about a month, they did blood samples, they did whole body evaluations. The persons had lost a little bit of weight, especially those that were overweight. Their caloric consumption per day just increased a couple of calories, not much. The person reported that their bowels move much better. The persons reported that they feel full when they were eating without needing to overeat. And indicators such as cholesterol actually decrease. So it is simple to do these types of interventions as you are applying this. SPEAKER B That's fantastic. I really like that because it was one thing, just one thing to do and they weren't being asked to take away something. And that can be people don't respond well to being told don't do this, don't eat that. It's like as soon as you think about what you shouldn't eat, it makes you brings it to mind and you think you might want to have it. But to add something is a very positive thing, isn't it? And probably in a subtle way, it probably did replace some of the things that they might have otherwise eaten. So I love that for its simplicity. SPEAKER A Cholesterol. SPEAKER B Were there any other indicators? SPEAKER D Yes, so there were the weight indicators, there were the cholesterol indicator, there was also society. The person felt that they didn't need it to overeat and so forth, so their bowels work much better and so forth. So there are many benefits of adding those more amount of legumes to your daily diet. And from the old times, people have survived with the blessing of these types of foods. We find a very interesting Bible verse that we can see in the screen in Ezekiel 49. It says there, take also unto thee wheat and barley. These are grains and beans and lentils, which are legumes and millet and spelt and put them in one vessel. So, as you can see from the old days, if you believe in the inspiration of the Bible, this was actually a message that God gave to Ezekiel. And it's interesting, there was a businessman that put that same recipe and made a bread out of it. Just the same. Exactly. Ingredients. In fact, that's the name of the bread. You find it in the stores, even here in Australia. It's called the Ezekiel 49 bread. And I can tell you it is one of the most healthy breads you can ever eat. The reason why is because certain diabetics, when they eat wheat bread, even if it's whole wheat bread, there are certain people that are diabetic that their sugars may go a little bit too high for what we would like, but when they eat this Ezekiel 49 bread, it is perfect for them. Their sugar doesn't go up and so forth. And even if you are not diabetic, you benefit from the consumption of this. So how interesting this is that something that was written even before the birth of Christ still applies to today's world. SPEAKER B Aren't we slow learners? Aren't we slow learners? I mean, to think that that's been there for thousands of years from a very good authority. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER B And now we sort of think, oh, he sort of knows what he's talking about. I mean, it's actually not even funny. It's tragic, because if we think of people who've suffered and died that's right. Because we don't follow the original diet that you've talked about in other programs of the plant based diet. But I still love the simplicity. And I can just imagine if know, tuning into the program to do what Eddie has just suggested happened in this study. Just add a can of well, you talked about gabanzo beans. It could be any you could be a four bean mix. It could be any of them. How many different legumes are there? Beans, pulses, whatever we're calling it? Well, how many? SPEAKER D There are more than 100 of them. SPEAKER B Wow. SPEAKER D And it's interesting how they vary depending on the area of the world that you go to. For example, if you go to Latin America, you will find beans such as the pinto bean, such as the we have pinto, such as the lima bean. SPEAKER B Yes. Got those. SPEAKER D Then as you go to areas like Japan, for example, you also find their own variety. You go to China, you find things like the pigeon peas. SPEAKER B I've never heard of pigeon peas until now. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER B I've never seen those. But look, as you said, there's hundreds, and we've probably got a few dozen in this country. SPEAKER D And then you go to areas like Northern Africa, Mediterranean. When they eat a lot of fava beans, you go to areas like India. Man, that's the paradise for legumes. I love visiting India. Last year, I was there twice. And they have this nice variety of legumes that are not only in one area, but they're everywhere. You have the garbanzos, you have the lentils, you have the red lentils, the black lentils, the yellow lentils, and all kinds of combinations. SPEAKER B And variety is really important. That's actually one of the Australian dietary guidelines. It's probably true in other countries too, to have a wide variety of nutritious foods because they've all got their individual things that are just maybe a little bit different. Like the yellow lentil might be different from the brown lentil and so on. And so it's good over time. Not all in one day. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER B But just over time to make a point of varying whether it's legumes or nuts or fruit or veggies. Just not to always have exactly the same things day after day and meal after meal. SPEAKER D That's right. And studies show that even in those countries that we're just mentioning, such as India, such as Mexico, such as Asia, for example, there was a study that was comparing how much the change on intake has decreased. And you know, sadly, in Mexico, the bean consumption, just in a matter of 40 years, the consumption decreased by 25% and in India the consumption decreased by 40%. Which is sad. See, as people started to improve a little bit, their economies and availability of food started becoming more common. Many times those people started substituting between legumes to animal products and that's being reflected also, you can see the correlation very clearly in rates of diabetes, obesity, heart disease. As the people change those good legumes to animal products, negative consequences have come as a result of that. SPEAKER B And what you showed in that study, just in this place of a month, those very things were reversing the cholesterol, heart disease and the diabetes just in a short time. And that's what I think is so exciting, to think that we can turn things around in a short time. Isn't that wonderful? It's not like you have to think, oh, this is going to take years, I don't think I can do it. But if you've got a goal to reach and it's just fairly close, you think, oh, I can do it, I can do a month, I can do this for a month. And just add a can of beans and they're so cheap. Well, so cheap compared to meat. Even in Australia, one in ten people rely on food relief every year. That's a lot. Yes, and we don't always realize that. We just think we know there are countries where people are really not getting enough to eat. It happens here. SPEAKER D And even if you don't have economic problems, I want you to get a paper and a pen and I want you to write the following information. See if you are switching towards a vegan diet. A vegan diet is a diet that is excluding the animal products in general, you need to make sure that you are eating enough protein. Specifically, we are concerned about lysine. So let me tell you this way. If you're a female and you're not eating legumes, for example, you could use rice. And to meet your caloric needs with rice, just if you were to eat rice in one day and you're a female, you would need ten cups of rice. That's what you would need to meet your caloric need that's rather a lot more than anyone would still won't meet your Lysine requirement. SPEAKER B Okay. SPEAKER D You would have to eat 18 cups of rice, brown rice, in order to meet your Lysine requirement. So if you are on a vegan diet, you need to incorporate legumes and pulses in your daily diet. So how much are we talking about? Well, if you analyze the nutritional content, it's about two servings per day that will meet your Lysine requirement. Now, if you want to be sure you're really, really meeting them, I would encourage you to actually make that three servings per day. So what are those servings? Let me give you some examples so that you can have some facts and you can use them as a guideline as you are planning your meals and so forth. So one servings, for example, would be half a cup of beans, okay? That's one serving. Half a cup of tofu or tempeh, 50 to 80 grams of veggie meat. The one that is made out of soy, one cup of soy milk. That's a blessing of today, having that with so much availability. And if you prefer to use something more like peanuts and so forth, well, you would have to eat about one, four cup of peanuts. That's one serving. SPEAKER B Because they're actually a legume, aren't they? SPEAKER D That's right, they're legume. Nutritionally speaking, yes. SPEAKER B Nutrition. SPEAKER D Or two tablespoons of peanut butter, that would meet that. So if you don't like beans and you say, well, now I see that I need to incorporate this, let me give you some other servings equivalent. What will be one serving? So it will be like one quarter cup of pistachio nuts, half a cup of cashews, and you can easily meet these needs. For example, in your breakfast you eat bread with peanut butter. That's your one serving. For lunch you can eat a wrap made out of hummus that would meet that requirement. And then for supper, you could eat some quinoa. And in that way you have your three servings a day. SPEAKER B Go ahead. Can't remember what I was going to say now. Just some point you made there. But I just would say this. You're talking about a vegan diet. You're talking about a plant based diet. And I'm just wondering how people might be reacting to that because it's know this isn't not everybody, but some people might react. But it's very interesting that although that's the diet that the good Lord gave at the beginning totally plant based, the. SPEAKER D World Health Organization encourages that diet. You can go to the World Health Organization website and they define a complete diet as that composed of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes and nuts. And they call that a complete diet. SPEAKER B Yeah. And that's fact sheet three nine, four, you can check it out. Fact sheet three nine four on the World Health Organization. I was actually quite surprised because we don't get that in Australia. We get Australian guide to healthy eating. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER B Includes some animal products. Not that as many as that used to. SPEAKER D That's right. SPEAKER B And probably other countries. But when I saw that I was wow. SPEAKER D And if you still have further diets doubts, go ahead and find the position statement of the American Dietetic Association. Just put American Dietetic Association vegetarian diets and the positional station. Their official position of the organization says that a vegetarian or a vegan diet provides all the nutrients that are needed to have a good health. And it says there very clearly, go and read it on your computer that this is adequate for pregnant women, children, people developing elderly people and people doing sports. SPEAKER B Yes, athletes. So that's right. And it's very well documented there. SPEAKER D So, again, coming to the point of vegan diets and the need for legumes, if you are not eating enough lysine in your diet, this will be reflected in your muscle mass, it will be reflected in your bones. So especially ladies need to make an effort to eat enough lysine in their diet by eating enough legumes. So this needs to be something that is important because we're talking about your long term health. And also in the past we thought that you have to eat complete protein and one meal. Today, our modern understanding of nutrition tells us that there is a buffer effect. So you can eat part of your essential amino acids in the morning, then later in the day you eat the other parts and you will get good plenty nutrition out of them. Also, another concern is if the protein of the vegetable is sufficient. The reality is that it is. It's interesting when you go and see the most strong animals in the planet. I mean, you see a horse, all the muscle mass and so forth. How many steaks did the horse ate? How many steaks did the bull ate to have that tremendous muscle mass? It's just grass that they were eating that help them get that muscle mass. So, yes, there is plenty of protein. Now, if you are going to go to a vegan diet, we do need you to eat a little bit more than usual amount of protein, but it is just a little bit more. So by adding those legumes, you meet that requirement. SPEAKER B Now, I suppose I'm just imagining that people tuning into this program are thinking about the downside of the downside of bees because you hear that and some people are very wary about using them because of the antisocial. SPEAKER D That's right to it. SPEAKER B But I thought about that. Well, go on, tell us about it. SPEAKER D Yes. So there when you are introducing these beans, the problem of today's society is that we eat too little fiber. This is a huge public health problem in Australia. And that's why colon cancer rates are very high. That's why damage to the colon happens long term from having constipation problems and you get this diverticuli, this damage permanent to your colon, which is dangerous, yet very, very common in Australia. So your digestive system many times is not used to dealing with this problem. So what I want you to do, I want you to add those legumes little by little. And then your intestinal flora, your bacteria that you have inside, actually starts changing. See, beans have what is called a prebiotic effect. In other words, when you are eating these legumes and pulses, you are encouraging in your system the growth of beneficial type of bacteria that will have long term effects and will have an effect in your health and also in your longevity. So, for example, when you have these legumes, as you're eating them, there is something that is called the beefy dough bacteria that starts to increase in your system. Studies show that as you introduce these legumes, you will have between two to ten fold more of these bacteria, while the negative bacteria that we don't like, that is called clostridium, actually decreases. So, even at the level of joint health, mental health and many other aspects, we now know that the bacteria that you have in your intestines play a very important role. So there is something in the beans that cause this effect. Let us see in the screen a graphic about that oligosaccharides, which are the ones that we are talking about. The way you process this will determine how this will happen. If you eaten raw, if you notice it has very high oligosaccharide, if you boil it, but you don't soak them before, you still have high levels. But if you soak them, boil them and then you throw away that water and put new water, the levels go very low. And if you add a little bit of alkaline such as bicarbonate, and you boil your legumes, you will see that the level is very low. And finally, germinated has a little bit higher levels. SPEAKER B Okay? SPEAKER D So as you can see, the way you prepare those beans will have a huge impact on how they actually will. SPEAKER B Behave in terms of gas. SPEAKER D In the topic of gas, as they say, there's a war going on there. You can hear the canyons exploding and so forth. But as you continue to apply these legumes on a regular basis, your intestinal flora will change and will be able to handle that. SPEAKER B You know what, I think the fact that it might decrease over time might be very disappointing to support young boys. Yes, I've got some grandchildren and you know what? And I sort of think, why don't we turn that around and make it work for us? And think feed them up so they can enjoy all this stuff they seem to enjoy. And then they'll get used to eating beans and it will help them with their health problems later. SPEAKER D On and not only it provides the protein side of things, but it will also provide important nutrients such as potassium, which is a deficient nutrient here in Australia, such as iron, such as magnesium, such as zinc, such as copper. So you are getting a variety of benefits when you are incorporating these foods on a regular basis. So let me summarize things. So what are we getting the benefits from eating these legumes? Well, we need, number one, to make sure we are eating enough calories and that we are incorporating those legumes. We need to eat a variety of whole food plant based foods and we need to remember to have two to three servings of legumes. And if we are over 70, over 60 years of age, I would actually advise you to add another serving because you need more protein. That's the latest research that has come about in order to maintain enough muscle mass. It's a big problem in people over 60. They lose their muscle mass and to maintain bone health. SPEAKER B Okay, well, it's no wonder that the United Nations has declared 2016 as the year of pulses, which are beans and legumes, like we said, for all those good reasons that you've given us. And of course, they just don't have any cholesterol. And I know there's more. If we had more time, we could probably talk about more of the benefits. But they're just absolutely amazing food, as they say. SPEAKER D I stopped eating legumes and the only thing I got was 3 my smile. SPEAKER B All right, so they're just an absolutely beautiful food. I wish that we just had more time to actually think about some of the things. There's no cruelty and all of that. So I just want to close with saying beans are good for the health of your body, good for the health of the planet, and they're good for the health of your wallet. So enjoy them every day. And if you'd like to watch our programs on demand, just go to our website 33abnaustralia.org.au and click on the watch button. We'll see you next time. SPEAKER C You’ve been listening to a production of 3ABN Australia television.