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Beans are a cheap, accessible food that offers so many benefits you might never look at them the same way again. From reducing disease risk to wedding traditions, here are our top ten favorite bean facts!

1. Legumes help prevent heart disease. Research studies show that people who eat beans four times a week are less likely to experience heart disease. One reason for this is that bean consumption often lowers blood pressure.‍

2. Beans keep you full for longer. Beans contain fiber, complex carbohydrates, and proteins, substances that signal to your body that you are full. 

3. Moderate bean consumption generally reduces cancer risks. 

4. Newlyweds in Nicaragua are given beans as a sign of good luck for a long prosperous marriage.

5. The healthiest beans to eat are chickpeas, lentils, peas, black beans, kidney beans, and soybeans. 

6. Raw green beans are slightly toxic!

7. Beans make people gassy because our bodies do not have the correct enzyme to process them completely. Which means our intestines ferment them, leading to gas.

8. Legend claims that the Greek philosopher and creator of the Pythagorean Theorem, Pythagoras, was killed because he refused to enter a bean field to escape a mob.

9. Humans have been eating beans for thousands of years, so long that beans might be one of the first cultivated plants.

10. India consumes the most beans globally, around 5,362 kilotons per year in 2018.

Start incorporating beans into your meals. Beans can even be added to desserts for more nutritional value. Join Guide Pam Penney in her class “Desserts that Start with a Can of Beans” to put your new bean knowledge to work.