Green Beans are Good for You

They say green is the colour of envy, may we suggest of good health too. You may have noticed green beans with your vegetable vendor all year round. Little do you know that these petite string beans pack a punch when it comes to delivering nutrition!

What’s in a name?

Green beans are referred to as string beans, French beans, snap beans but quintessentially they are the same with mild variations.

Green beans are an excellent source of vitamin C, vitamin K and manganese. Plus green beans are very good source of vitamin A (notably through their concentration of carotenoids including beta-carotene), dietary fiber, potassium, folate, and iron. And, green beans are a good source of magnesium, thiamin, riboflavin, copper, calcium, phosphorous, protein, omega-3 fatty acids and niacin.

Go green for strong bones

• When it comes to building bones, it is hard to think beyond calcium, which invariably ends on milk. Green beans help you build bones too through its reserve of vitamin K, magnesium, manganese, calcium and vitamin K.
• One cup of boiled green beans provides 25 per cent of daily requirement of vitamin K essential for bone formation and repair and is necessary for synthesis of osteocalcin, the protein in bone tissue on which calcium crystallizes.
• This vegetable is a good source of manganese, which is needed for normal bone growth and synthesis of bone.
• Calcium in green beans is self explanatory for healthy bones and magnesium helps fight osteoporosis.

For a steady heartbeat

• The high concentration of beta carotene makes green beans a good source of vitamin A—fat-soluble antioxidant. Also they are an excellent source of vitamin C—water-soluble antioxidant. Vitamin C is required for at least 300 metabolic functions in the body and holds the key to enhancing our immunity.
• This water-and-fat-soluble antioxidant team helps to prevent cholesterol from becoming oxidized. Oxidized cholesterol is able to stick to and build up in blood vessel walls, where it can cause blocked arteries, heart attack or stroke. Getting plenty of beta-carotene and vitamin C can help prevent these complications, and a cup of green beans will provide you with 16.6% of the daily value for vitamin A along with 20.2% of the daily value for vitamin C.
• Potassium and magnesium in green beans is important for maintaining stable blood pressure. Magnesium protects the arterial lining from stress caused by sudden blood pressure changes. In green beans you have them working together as a team.
• Folate is needed to convert a potentially dangerous molecule called homocysteine into other, benign molecules. In case you are wondering about homocysteine, it is a sulphurous amino acid, which is a by-product of the protein metabolism. A high homocysteine level in the blood points to an increased risk of heart and vascular problems.
• Lastly, fiber, which is also found in green beans, has been shown to lower high cholesterol levels.

For a healthy colon

• The vitamin C and beta-carotene in green beans help to protect the colon cells from the damaging effects of free radicals.
• Green beans’ folate helps to prevent DNA damage and mutations in colon cells, even when they are exposed to cancer-causing chemicals. Studies show that people who eat foods high in vitamin C, beta-carotene, and/or folate are at a much lower risk of getting colon cancer than those who don’t.
• The riboflavin in green beans works in tandem with beta-carotene and improves mucous membranes of the digestive tract.
• Green beans’ fiber can help prevent colon cancer as well, as it has the ability to bind to cancer-causing toxins, removing them from the body before they can harm colon cells.

Fights anaemia

• Green beans are a very good source of iron, an especially important mineral for menstruating women, who are more at risk for iron deficiency. Iron is as essential part of hemoglobin, a molecule essential to energy production since it is responsible for transporting and releasing oxygen throughout the body.
  But hemoglobin synthesis also relies on copper. Without copper, iron cannot be properly utilized in red blood cells. Fortunately, both minerals are supplied in green beans, which also contain 6.5% of the daily value for copper.
• Thiamine and riboflavin are both involved in red blood cell formation.

Relieves inflammation

• Beta-carotene and vitamin C both also have very strong anti-inflammatory effects. This may make green beans helpful for reducing the severity of diseases where inflammation plays a major role, such as asthma, osteoarthritis, and rheumatoid arthritis.
  A cup of green beans is a good source of riboflavin. Incidentally riboflavin has been found to reduce severity of migraines in sufferers.

After reading this it is essential that you stop ignoring this nutritional heavyweight and get them home more often. Throw them with dals, soups, stir fry them alone or with omnipresent potatoes and steam them for salads. They are plenty of innovative ways, once you start experimenting with these petite-green beans

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