Food for Thought
Life with Beans by Paulette Freeman

From a Caribbean background, as a child I remember having beans in most of our meals, oxtail with butter beans, cow foot with butter beans, pigtails dish with red beans called stew peas. Saturday soups were tripe or chicken with split peas or my favourite, gungo peas.  Sunday’s rice and peas with red beans, gungo or blackeye peas with that beloved brown stewed chicken. So I ask myself, why so many beans? Did they know the benefits?  Let’s take a quick look.

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Kidney beans are high in fiber, antioxidants, ladies they aid with our weight loss yeah!

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Black-eyed beans has fiber, protein, copper, thiamine, and iron in each serving, making us strong black people.

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What about our soups or rice with gungo peas, sometimes known as pigeon peas,used as a remedy for health problems, such as bronchitis, pneumonia, coughs, respiratory infections, colds etc. Who knew!

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Oh those creamy butter/lima beans have vitamins A, B and C helping our complexion look flawless (black don’t crack) and our vision bright, our cholesterol staying low. 

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Remember those soups with split peas offering protein, iron, zinc, they also help reduce cholesterol, hypertension, and inflammation.

Let’s praise our ancestors; without the aid of the internet, they relied on knowledge from Abba Father. Inspiring them to brown (chef’s term, searing) their meat so it is rich and delicious, adding beans to keep the family healthy. Now renowned chefs are cooking their food by design. Let us embrace our inheritance of food the best gift our ancestors left us. 

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Our God is amazing! There are more health benefits as we embrace life with beans.

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