0not having gotten adequate amounts of folate during pregnancy. The current RDA for folate
is 180 mcg for a woman and 200 mcg for a man, but the FDA now recommends 400 mcg
for a woman who is or may become pregnant. Taking a folate supplement before becoming
pregnant and continuing through the first two months of pregnancy reduces the risk of cleft
palate; taking folate through the entire pregnancy reduces the risk of neural tube defects.
Lentils are a significant source of folate. One-half cup cooked lentils has 178 mg folate.
Lower risk of heart attack. In the spring of 1998, an analysis’ of data from the records for
more than 80,000 women enrolled in the long-running Nurses Health Study at Harvard
School of Public Health/Brigham and Woman’s Hospital in Boston demonstrated that a diet
providing more than 400 mcg folate and 3 mg vitamin B 6 a day from either food or supple-
ments, more than twice the current RDA for each, may reduce a woman’s risk of heart
attack by almost 50 percent. Although men were not included in the analysis, the results are
assumed to apply to them as well. NOTE: Fruit, green leafy vegetables, beans, whole grains,
meat, fish, poultry, and shellfish are good sources of vitamin B 6.
As a source of carbohydrates for people with diabetes. Beans are digested very slowly, produc-
ing only a gradual rise in blood-sugar levels. As a result, the body needs less insulin to control
blood sugar after eating beans than after eating some other high-carbohydrate foods such
as bread or potato. In studies at the University of Kentucky, a bean, whole-grain, vegetable,
and fruit-rich diet developed at the University of Toronto and recommended by the Ameri-
can Diabetic Association enabled patients with type 1 diabetes (who do not produce any
insulin themselves) to cut their daily insulin intake by 38 percent. For patients with type 2
diabetes (who can produce some insulin), the bean diet reduced the need for injected insulin
by 98 percent. This diet is in line with the nutritional guidelines of the American Diabetic
Association, but people with diabetes should always consult their doctors and/or dietitians
before altering their diet.
As a diet aid. Although beans are very high in calories, they have so much fiber that even
a small serving can make you feel full. And, since beans are insulin-sparing (because they
do not cause blood-sugar levels to rise quickly), they put off the surge of insulin that makes
us feel hungry again and allow us to feel full longer. In fact, research at the University of
Toronto suggests the insulin-sparing effect may last for several hours after you eat the beans,
perhaps until after your next meal. When subjects were given one of two breakfasts—bread
and cheese or lentils—the people who ate the lentils produced 25 percent less insulin after
the meal.
Adverse Effects Associated with This Food
Intestinal gas. All dried beans, including lentils, contain raffinose and stachyose, sugars
that the human body cannot digest. As a result these sugars sit in the gut, where they are
fermented by the bacteria that live in our intestinal tract. The result is intestinal gas. Since
the indigestible sugars are soluble in hot water, they will leach out into the water in which
you cook the lentils. You can cut down on intestinal gas by draining the lentils thoroughly
before you serve them.
Lentils