Are white beans the little black dress of the pantry? Maybe! They are quite versatile, and their pale color lets them blend into some recipes where the color bleed from red or black greens wouldn’t look so good.
White beans are a general term for cannellini beans (a white Italian kidney bean), great northern beans, and navy beans. While these beans are fairly interchangeable, most recipes will call for cannellini beans (unless it’s a recipe for navy bean soup!), and that’s generally the type of white bean you’ll find in cans. Lately, I’ve been using dried beans as much as possible, but I always—always—keep some canned white beans on hand for the 10 reasons I’m going to tell you about below. But first, some fun nutrition facts!
White bean Nutrition 411
White beans, along with other pulses (beans and lentils) are nutrient- and fiber-rich, contributing to good health in a number of ways.
They are a tidy package of both plant protein and “slow carbs,” which means that they contribute to a gentle rise and fall in your blood sugar (rather than the spike and crash you can get with refined sources of carbs) and steadier energy.
Their fiber contributes to both gut health—they’re source of prebiotic fiber, aka good food for your good gut microbes—and heart health, as eating pulses can help lower blood pressure and blood cholesterol. (If you have irritable bowel syndrome, you know all to well that beans may not be your best friend, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need fiber. Stay tuned for Thursday’s post for more on this topic, and fiber in general.)
A half-cup of cooked white beans is an excellent source of fiber (almost 7 grams), folate and iron, and a good source of protein (more than 9 grams), potassium and zinc. This—along with the health benefits I mentioned above—is why the USDA Dietary Guidelines for Americans recommends eating 1 ½ cups of pulses per week as part of a healthy eating pattern.
An easy way to meet that recommendation is to form a “Half-Cup Habit.” In other words, eat ½ cup of beans three times per week. How to do that? Just keep reading!
