Category Archives: Beans

Broad Beans, Levodopa and Parkinson’s Disease

Posted on May 19, 2014 by Robert Barrington

Nutritionally the broad bean (Vicia faba), also known as the fava bean, is interesting. Like all legumes the broad bean contains isoflavones, protein, fibre as well as vitamins and minerals (here) and is therefore considered a high quality food. However, … Continue reading →

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Broad Beans Versus Soybeans

Posted on May 18, 2014 by Robert Barrington

Broad beans (Vicia faba) are also known as fava beans. They belong to the fabaceae family. Broad beans contain phytonutrients including the isoflavone group of molecules, although levels of total isoflavones (genistein and daidzein) are about one third of that … Continue reading →

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Volatile Fatty Acid Production

Posted on January 28, 2014 by Robert Barrington

  Volatile fatty acids, also called short chain fatty acids (SCFA), are produced in the colon through the fermentation of dietary fibre. Originally it was assumed that the only benefit of dietary fibre was to provide bulk to chyme to … Continue reading →

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Digestibility of Beans

Posted on January 1, 2014 by Robert Barrington

Beans have important health properties that are related to their slow rate of digestion. Understanding the digestibility of beans is therefore important in the nutritional sciences. Beans and other legumes have their starch contained within strong parenchymal cells that are … Continue reading →

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Legumes: Blood Sugar Effects of Beans

Posted on December 17, 2013 by Robert Barrington

Legumes are of interest to nutritional scientists because they have beneficial effects on blood sugar. This is evident from their low rating on the glycaemic index (GI). The glycaemic rating of carbohydrate foods is widely believed to be due to … Continue reading →

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Starch Digestion in Legumes

Posted on December 16, 2013 by Robert Barrington

  Legumes may be beneficial to the health because they produce a low glycaemic response. This is of interest to nutritional scientists because exaggerated rises in blood sugar are increasingly being linked to disease, particularly type 2 diabetes, obesity and … Continue reading →

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Beans and Oats: Cholesterol Control

Posted on September 12, 2013 by Robert Barrington

igh plasma concentrations of cholesterol do not cause cardiovascular disease. Instead, both high levels of the small dense low density lipoprotein (LDL) particle and low concentrations of the high density lipoprotein (HDL) particle are associated with cardiovascular disease. This is … Continue reading →

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Fast Food for Health

Posted on June 1, 2013 by Robert Barrington

Fast food is often considered to be bad for the health. Generally this is true if referring to high fat, high sugar, salt laden foods that might be bought from a typical garage, fast food restaurant or supermarket. However, there … Continue reading →

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Stay Lean, Eat Beans

Posted on May 24, 2013 by Robert Barrington

ll carbohydrate foods provide 3.75 calories per gram. Proponents of the forced energy restriction diet hypothesis will argue that a calorie is a calorie and it is the balance of energy consumed and energy expended that will dictate weight gain. … Continue reading →

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Legumes Lower Plasma Cholesterol: More Data

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Robert Barrington

Elevated plasma levels of very low density lipoprotein (VLDL) and the small dense sub-fraction of low density lipoprotein (LDL) are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. Dietary legumes from the Fabinaceae family of plants have been extensively investigated … Continue reading →

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