Reasons You Should Be Eating More Green Beans

Most people think that green beans are their own food - that there is one kind of green bean, the kind that comes in a can or in a frozen bag. However, the phrase "green bean" refers to the entire fruit, seed, and pod of any bean plant, in its early stages of growth while it's still green. The pod is quite sweet and easily digested at this stage, so agriculturalists now specifically breed plants to be harvested at this stage in their development. There are, in fact, over 130 varieties of beans, broken into categories such as string beans, butter beans, and snap beans. They tend to grow best in hot climates, which is probably why they have become such a staple of southern United States cooking.

They originated in the hot parts of the Americas, India, and China, but weren't perfected until they were introduced by Spanish conquistadors to France in 1597. There, green beans were considered rare, a delicacy only found in the fanciest of restaurants. In fact, France was the first place to put the humble green bean on its menus. Since then, man has consumed green beans in a hundred different ways, enjoying their flavor and health benefits all at once.

Green beans are so packed with essential vitamins and minerals that it's hard to decide where to start. Perhaps the most obvious place would also be the broadest benefit: green beans are absolutely stuffed full of Vitamins A and C. The Vitamin A probably comes from its high concentration of beta-carotene, which combines with the Vitamin C in all kinds of glorious ways. Here are just a few things that this dynamic duo can accomplish together:

1. Both are important antioxidants which are useful in ridding the body of nasty free radicals.
2. Since beta-carotene is fat-soluble and Vitamin C is water-soluble, the two combined create just the right atmosphere for preventing cholesterol from becoming oxidized. Why should we care if our cholesterol oxidizes? Because if it doesn't, it won't stick to our arterial walls and cause the blockage that leads to heart failure. That's why.
3. They both have strong anti-inflammatory abilities, which come in handy when facing down diseases that are aggravated by inflammation, such as asthma and arthritis.
4. They work together with Zinc (also available in abundance in green beans) to boost the immune system, protecting against disease.

Another benefit to eating green beans is the high dose of Vitamin K, which helps build strong, healthy bones and prevents their early breakdown. Also, the magnesium and potassium found within these sweet green treats help lower blood pressure, the dietary fiber helps lower cholesterol and reduce the risk of heart disease, heart attack, and stroke, and the folate helps protect healthy blood vessels by converting the potentially dangerous molecule homocysteine into much less destructive molecules. Finally, green beans are an excellent source of iron, which, among other things, works together with the copper you can also get in green beans to keep oxygen flowing from your lungs to the rest of your body, keeping your bloodstream healthy, your brain functioning at optimum levels, and your muscles working the way they should.

All this for around 45 calories a cup? You can't beat that with a stick.

Green beans sometimes get a bad rap for being the Jolly Green Giant's best-seller, or for being mushy and overly salted, but that's only if you go the "traditional" route. For a really killer vegetable dish, buy your green beans fresh. Rinse them well, and sit down in front of the TV and pick the ends off. The beans make a satisfying snapping sound that never gets old, and you can even enlist the kids. They'll really like being part of the dinner preparations, and it will get done very quickly.

Green beans can be steamed, sautéed, stir-fried, boiled, cooked in soup, cooked in casseroles, put on pizza, dried and salted, or even fried. However, my favorite way to eat them is raw. They're sweet, crunchy, and filling, and they make an excellent summer salad topping or just a quick bite. With a little salt and some garlic powder, raw green beans beat out potato chips any day of the week. And with their mountains of healthy vitamins and minerals, they beat out pretty much everything else too.

Big Thanks To:

Wikipedia - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Green_beans

The World Wide Gourmet - http://www.theworldwidegourmet.com/products/vegetables/green-bean/

World Health Organization - http://whfoods.com