The process of losing weight usually involves limiting calories and fats. It is often overlooked that weight loss will not be sufficiently effective without protein in the diet. Numerous studies confirm that it is difficult to lose weight if the diet contains a minimum amount of protein. These high-molecular-weight organic substances help the body use up fat instead of muscle mass. Are baked beans good for weight loss?
Sources of protein include meat, fish, and legumes. Although programs for weight loss based on beans are not too common, nutritionists treat them with approval, considering them sufficiently effective, loyal, allowing you to lose weight without a hard starvation. Such diets are especially valuable for vegetarians who do not eat meat.
Useful properties of beans for weight loss
The legume family includes up to 17 thousand species, including beans, peas, soybeans, lentils and also beans themselves — an annual vegetable crop, one of the most ancient on Earth. According to ancient chronicles, the plant Vicia faba is known in the Middle East for 8 thousand years, it was considered the food of the gods and was used to treat many diseases, including obesity.
There are about 2 dozen varieties of beans, including the common in Europe white, green, black, asparagus (vigna), as well as exotic snake beans, mung bean, chickpea. Their composition and usefulness for weight loss they differ slightly, the main advantages are quite modest caloric content, large amounts of fiber and proteins. The structure of these proteins is similar to that of meat, but unlike meat or fish, the vegetable crop contains almost no fat.
Fiber (dietary fiber) cleanses the intestines, aids in digestion, and also dampens hunger for a long time, allowing appetite control. When legumes were used in the treatment of obesity, they were found to reduce weight faster in people whose diets included them than in patients in the control group. Bean seeds contain about 35% protein, so a small serving of this product is enough to meet the daily protein requirement.
In addition, the fruits of Vicia faba are a source of useful substances necessary to stabilize the work of all organs and systems, strengthen immunity, improve metabolism, useful for weight loss:
- vitamins: A, C, PP, as well as 5 representatives of the B group;
- macronutrients — potassium, calcium, sodium, magnesium, phosphorus;
- trace elements — iron, manganese, copper, selenium, zinc;
- amino acids formed from proteins — arginine, glycine, serine, cysteine, tyrosine, proline;
- essential amino acids — histidine, leucine and isoleucine, methionine, tryptophan, phenylalanine.
A significant advantage of legume diets for weight loss is the combination of high efficiency with easy tolerability — despite the richness of the diet, the daily caloric intake is usually less than 1000 Kcal. For this reason, they are often chosen by those who are unable to endure other, more rigid dietary methods. Unripe beans are especially useful; they have a richer composition and a more delicate taste.