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Health Benefits Of Lentils!

Healthy Living With Type 1 Diabetes Health Benefits Of Lentils!Let me just start out by saying that I love lentils and as a fellow type 1 diabetic, so should you!  Add these little gems to your meals and increase your fiber and protein intake. Lentils are inexpensive, easy to prepare and contain many vitamins and minerals.  Eat the low-fat food and help prevent chronic conditions, such as heart disease.  Serve them as a main meal or as a side dish and satisfy your hunger while providing your body with lasting energy.

 

Lentils And Dietary Fiber:

Lentils are a high-fiber food.  One cup of plain and cooked provides 230 calories and just under 40 grams of complex carbohydrates, of which 15.6 grams are fiber, an amount equivalent to 62 percent of the daily value for fiber.  While lentils contain significant amounts of soluble and insoluble fiber, they’re especially rich in the soluble type.  Soluble fiber dissolves into a substance that binds to cholesterol and other fatty acids and promotes their excretion through waste.  Soluble fiber also slows the absorption of sugar into the bloodstream to promote normal blood glucose levels.  A 2009 analysis of several related studies published in the journal “Diabetologia,” found that lentils and other legumes improve blood glucose management in diabetics.

Lentils And Vitamin B:

Lentils are rich in several B vitamins, particularly folate, thiamine and vitamin B-6.  These nutrients are required to produce energy.  Specifically, B vitamins help your body use proteins and fat and convert carbohydrates into glucose.  One cup cooked supplies about 90 percent, 22 percent and 18 percent of the daily values for folate, thiamine and vitamin B-6, respectively, as well as 10 percent and 9 percent of the daily values for niacin and riboflavin, respectively.  Folate is essential to brain health, the Healthy Living With Type 1 Diabetes Health Benefits Of Lentils!formation of red blood cells and the prevention of neural-tube birth defects.  B vitamins also play a role in healthy liver, immune system and nervous system function.

In regards to nutritional quality, these legumes are a superior food.  In addition to being composed of about 26% protein, a single serving, about half a cup (about 113 grams) uncooked, has 60% of the recommended daily allowance (RDA) of iron, 67% of the RDA for vitamin B1, and 31 grams of dietary fiber.  Additionally, because lentils contain proteins they can easily substitute meat.  Replacing red meat with lentils means you can have all the nutrients your body needs without the solid calories.  They also contain iron which ads to your energy level and folic acid, a very important nutrient.  One cup cooked also provides the recommended daily value of folic acid, thus it is recommended for vegetarians as well as  pregnant women.

If this article on lentils was helpful, please leave a comment below or  hit the share button to share with your family and friends 😀

Thanks for Reading!

Chris

Chris - The Organic Diabetic

As a type 1 diabetic, I made the switch to an organic lifestyle several years ago after being diagnosed with Diabetes in 2006. Living with diabetes is hard enough, why make it more difficult by consuming products with chemicals, toxins and other harmful, unhealthy ingredients. To me, the choice was easy and just made sense. We hope you enjoy our blog! Feel free to look around and check out all of our products by clicking through the tabs above! Thanks for stopping by and also please be sure to check us out on Facebook and Twitter by liking our pages below! You never know what freebies we will be giving away!! Don't forget to check out the website as well at www.theorganicdiabetic.org

2 thoughts on “Health Benefits Of Lentils!

  • Great, thanks for sharing this blog.Much thanks again. Will read on…

    Reply

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