The power of legumes for health and sustainability

What are legumes?

Legumes belong to the plant family Fabaceae, also known as Leguminosae.

They include all kinds of beans such as soya beans, green beans, kidney beans, black beans, also peas, peanuts and pulses.

What are pulses?

Pulses are a sub-group of legumes and are the dried, edible seeds of leguminous plants, such as dried beans, dried chickpeas, dried split peas and lentils.

Nutrition Facts:

Legumes, including pulses, are an inexpensive source of protein, vitamins, minerals and fibre. They are also low in fat and have a low glycaemic index (low blood glucose surge after consumption).

Legumes are versatile foods for cooking:

• Add beans, chickpeas or lentils to pasta sauces, home-made burgers, stuffing, or rice salads.
• Make pea, lentil or bean soups for hearty meals on cold days.
• Add bean dips or spreads, or hummus with chickpeas to packed lunches.

Legumes are healthy plant substitutes for fattier, animal-based, foods:

• Replace all or some of the meat in recipes with pulses.
• Use pureed beans to replace cream in soups.
• Replace all, or part, of the fat ingredients in brownies, muffins and cookies with mashed or pureed beans.

Legumes have multiple sustainability characteristics:

Globally, on average, 1.8 kg of greenhouse gases (GHGs) are emitted to produce 1kg of beans vs. 99kg of GHGs to produce 1kg of beef.

Source: Poore, J., & Nemecek, T. (2018).  Reducing food’s environmental impacts through producers and consumers. Science, 360(6392), 987-992. https: // doi:10.1126/science.aaq0216

Legumes also:

• Release much less GHG emissions per land area compared to other crops.
• Can sequester carbon in soils.
• Can make their own nitrogen from the atmosphere, reducing use of nitrogen fertilisers.
• Leave nitrogen-rich residues in the soil after harvesting; a benefit for the next crop. 

Legumes are a triple win for health, sustainability and affordability.

Make SMALL changes in your diet for a BIG healthy and sustainable impact!