Eat Like an Athlete by Simone Austin

Author:Simone Austin
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Hardie Grant Publishing
Published: 2018-12-14T05:00:00+00:00

LEGUMES

Although legumes may not be the most attractive-looking food, nutritionally speaking, they are very attractive. If I was giving out superfood ratings, legumes would rate very highly. They are cheap to buy, high in dietary fibre, protein and carbohydrate, and provide iron, zinc, magnesium and loads of other vitamins and minerals. Legumes are important in a vegetarian or vegan diet because of the nutrients they contain, including protein, iron and zinc. For athletes, legumes provide the perfect package deal for a recovery meal.

The high dietary fibre in legumes, together with the carbohydrate structure, means they have a low glycaemic index rating and are digested slowly, meaning your blood glucose level goes up gradually. They keep you full for longer and give you a slow release of energy, plus the soluble fibre they contain helps reduce cholesterol levels.

People sometimes avoid legumes because of the flatulence they can cause, but this is actually a good sign. Some of the dietary fibre and carbohydrate contained in lentils is fermented in the large intestine, producing gas. For some people this can cause discomfort, but that gas is good for your bowels and helps protect against bowel disease. To help reduce the discomfort of flatulence, try adding legumes gradually into your diet and watch what other ingredients you cook with them. If you have issues with FODMAP foods, don’t cook your legumes with onion and garlic, use small amounts, and avoid consuming them on consecutive days.

Rinsing canned legumes a few times helps remove some of the oligosaccharides – that’s the ‘sludge’ you see in the can. This is made up of water, sometimes salt, and the carbohydrate that has come out of the beans. These oligosaccharides are sugars that end up in the large intestine, where they are fermented, producing gas. If you don’t mind that ‘sludge’ in canned legumes, save it and put it in soups for flavour. You can even whip up the sludge from canned chickpeas instead of egg whites to make a pavlova, or anything that would usually call for whipped egg whites. You can freeze canned legumes if you don’t use them all in one go.

If your family complain about the flatulence, just tell them it’s part of your ‘gut health’ program.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.