The Magical Bean

If you don't care about your food, where it comes from or what is in it, then this post isn't for you.

But if you are like me and are a label reader, and when you start seeing things you can't pronounce on the label you put it back. (Which incidentally, I am an engineer and Wonderful Man is a scientist, we can pronounce a lot of those crazy things on labels. Since I do the grocery shopping, I limit it to two crazy multi-syllable additives that will preserve me before I die.)

No, I am not some liberal, tree hugger, organic wearing, hippie. Although, I do chose to buy what I CAN AFFORD organic. This means if I can get the same exact item at my local employee owned grocer for half the price as my local food coop, I go where it is cheaper!

Well, my shopping/spending/food habits are the point of this post, I want to point a few things out about food in general, and more specifically the BEAN.

Beans are great, we eat a lot of them. Mainly, because they are cheap and when mixed equally with rice, the two create the PERFECT PROTEIN!!!

Antioxidants are the real point of this post. Do you know what they are? I have a funny story (well, to me at least) about antioxidants.

But, first the definition given to us by The Mayo Clinic:  "neutralize free radicals, which are toxic byproducts of natural cell metabolism. Free radicals can also be introduced into the body by exposure to certain substances, such as cigarette smoke, sunlight or pesticides."

Time out for my Funny Story: When I took a nutrition class in college for my biology credit, we learned about antioxidants and "free radicals". It was the summer of my second year, and I was still overly political, very conservative and anti-anything-liberal (I have since calmed WAY DOWN). Now it was summer and the last thing I was doing in class was paying attention, but when the teacher said we should consume more foods which contain these antioxidants to neutralize the 'free radicals'. I had a mini panic attack thinking about how what food we consume could turn a person liberal. I thought this for about 10 seconds, when someone else in the class asked what a 'free radical' was. I felt like a complete idiot. Food can't change your political affiliations! Although, we are what we eat!

So, NO! 'Free Radicals' are not going to make you go all crazy tree hugger, anti-government on us. (We need people like that, though! They help to get our government to do things!) They can be beneficial in some bodily processes. Although, they tend to do more harm than good. (Mayo Clinic)

I am going to make an analogy here to explain how I understand 'free radicals' and antioxidants.

For example your body is a piece of Iron. And we all know that iron rusts. Well that rust is caused by oxidation. Rust can be prevented in a number of ways, one way is to coat the iron, so that water can not reach the surface of the metal. In this example, water would be the 'free radical' and the coating on the iron the antioxidant. As long as the coating is good, the iron will not rust. So, as long as we have a good 'coating' of antioxidants, we will be able to stop some of the affects of 'free radicals'.

That sounds simple enough, right? So, what foods have good levels of antioxidants?

Well, green tea comes to mind right? How about Blueberries?

According to the USDA's Antioxidant Scorecard (which I couldn't find how they scored the items...) Blueberries have the highest antioxidant properties! (1 cup of blueberries scored 9,019 while 1 cup of green tea scored 2,231) (Prevention)

So what about our magic beans?

1/2 cup of cooked pinto beans scored 4, 983
1/2 cup of cooked red kidney beans scored 5,569

That is pretty good. Next week I will have a recipe for beans to share with you!

Sources:
The Mayo Clinic Website (link)

Prevention; Beyond tea: Antioxidant stars; Feb2006, Vol. 58 Issue 2, p73