Kidney beans are considered to be really full of nutrients. These are the best source of protein, particularly for all the vegetarians out there. Including these in your diet can be a really easy decision. However, the same might not be true if you have diabetes. Diabetes can be really complicated and you need to be careful about your diet.

In this article, let us try and find out the answers to the following question “Are Kidney Beans Good for Diabetics?”

Nutrition Present in Kidney Beans

Kidney beans have always been known to be nutritious for your body. They have very high content of some of the most important nutrients as required by your body. Some of these are as below:

• A single cup of beans is known to contain around 16 grams of protein
• Another important element in beans is the presence of soluble fiber. One gram is known to contain 15 grams of soluble fiber.
• Vitamin A and folate are other important elements that are present in abundance in the kidney beans. This goes a long way in helping you give a healthy body and also to tackle diabetes in an efficient manner
• When you cook the kidney beans, a cup of the same is known to contain somewhere around 39 grams of carbohydrates and around 0.6 grams of sugar as well

It is because of all these nutritional values, that kidney beans have rightly been designated as one of the “Superfoods” of diabetes. By the American Diabetes Association.

Advantages of Including Kidney Beans in Your Diabetic Diet

The following are some of the various advantages that you can derive from including kidney beans in your diet if you are a person who has diabetes:

=> Kidney beans are a great source of dietary fiber. This is important as it helps you feel full for a longer period of time while helping you manage weight in an effective and efficient manner.

=> The soluble fiber present in this super-food goes a long way in helping to improve the healthy gut bacteria that your body has. This is important as it aids you to avoid all the unnecessary complications that diabetes is known to bring about

=> When you a person with diabetes, you might face the problem of developing constipation. When you have food such as kidney beans, your digestive system is smoothed and you tend to get relief from the problem of constipation

=> Potassium is needed by the body for maintaining the balance of water levels. If you have diabetes and you do not have sufficient amount of potassium in your body, you will problems such as high blood pressure. Kidney beans are an important means by which you can get the much-needed potassium in your body. This, in turn, leads to better management of diabetes.

=> When you have diabetes, it is highly recommended that you replace the meat intake by taking more and more of beans. This becomes really important as unlike meat, kidney beans have a lot of protein content which really helps you deal with the complicated condition of diabetes

=> The presence of antioxidants in beans also means that most of the complications that are known to be common in patients who suffer from diabetes are kept at bay.

=> Kidney beans are further known to reduce the levels of bad cholesterol in the body. This, in turn, goes a long way in helping to reduce the chances of a diabetes patient getting heart-related condition which is usually common in these patients.

=> Magnesium is another important nutrient that is much required by your body. The nutrient helps the ability of the body cells to respond and effectively manage the levels of the hormone insulin. Kidney beans are an important resource through which your body can get high levels of magnesium.

=> Finally, it is a known fact that when you have diabetes, you should eat only as many carbohydrates as does not do harm to your body. Kidney beans do contain carbs. However, they digest slowly. As a result, the spike in blood glucose levels as a result of carbohydrates is not very high.

Important Considerations

Some of the considerations which you need to keep in mind while including kidney beans in your diabetic diet include the following:

• You should definitely consult your medical expert before you take a decision of including kidney beans in your diabetic meal plan
• Eat only the amount of kidney beans on a regular basis as is recommended by your doctor. Eating too much can cause a lot of complications
• Whenever you include kidney beans in your diet, make sure that you do not add too much of salt or additional spices to If you do so, the beans will do more harm than the benefit you.

Thus, kidney beans can be largely beneficial for the efficient management of diabetes and various related complications to the disease. All you need to do is keep the above-mentioned recommendations in mind.