Beans, beans, good for your heart…and the planet!

In Scotland, when we talk about beans, 9 times out of 10 we’ll be talking about baked beans. Beans on toast, baked potato with beans, fry ups, pie and beans…We’ve long had a love affair with the humble haricot bean in tomato sauce, and what’s not to love? They’re cheap, nutritious, readily available and are a store cupboard staple.

But what about all of the other kinds of beans that don’t get as much love? Butterbeans, kidney beans, cannellini beans, black beans, borlotti beans and fava? Just as cheap, just as nutritious, just as easy to find and just as handy to have in the cupboard.

About the Bang in Some Beans campaign

The UK-wide Bang in Some Beans campaign launched a few months ago. The Food Foundation and Veg Power campaign aims to double the consumption of beans by 2028, and get people eating more beans. The beans project has received almost £1.4m from The National Lottery Community Fund and aims to reduce the impact of diets on greenhouse gas emissions, whilst creating a long-term shift towards healthier and more sustainable dietary habits.

Beans and your health

In recent years, a lot of people have talked about the importance of protein in people’s diets, but in the UK, we actually eat more protein than we need. What people are really lacking in is fibre! On average, adults eat 16.4 – 16.9g of fibre a day, when the amount recommended by the UK Government is 30g according to the National Diet and Nutrition Survey (2019 – 2023). Getting enough fibre helps to keep us healthy and reduces the risks of developing heart disease, type 2 diabetes and colorectal cancer.

This is where beans come in. Packed with fibre, beans are an easy and affordable way to make your diet healthier. And you don’t need to be a Jamie Oliver in the kitchen either (although he is backing the Bang In Some Beans campaign! His most recent Channel 4 TV show also has some excellent recipes and ideas for adding beans to dishes). You can chuck a tin of kidney beans or black beans into your chilli, add some cannellini or butterbeans into a stew, casserole or curry. Or if you’ve got a blender or food processor, pureed butterbeans or cannellini beans make an excellent alternative to mashed potatoes!

Beans and the planet

As well as the health benefits of eating more beans, they’re incredibly sustainable and climate-friendly. Beans are known as nitrogen fixers, which means they take atmospheric nitrogen in the air and add it to the soil. Which, as well as helping them to grow, removes that nitrogen from the atmosphere, helping to fight climate change! Not only that, but compared to rearing livestock (including local, grass-fed animals), beans take up far less land and need far less water to grow. There is only 1.8kg of greenhouse gases emitted on average globally when producing a kilogram of beans compared to 99kg for a kilogram of herd beef. Source: Food Foundation Bean Facts Report (page 27)

Beans and your wallet

Finally, beans are cheap! Significantly cheaper than meat. Tins of cooked beans can be bought for under 50p and buying bags of dried beans makes them even cheaper (although you do then need to soak and cook them yourself).

So try to bang in some beans into your meals and get some more fibre in your diet, money in your pocket and help the planet by eating more sustainably!

Tony Perkins

Community Chef