On Tuesday, kidney beans and their legumes, peas and lentils, received nutritional attention as the 2025 U.S. Nutrition Advisory Council released scientific guidance that could shape federal nutrition advice for the next five years. Ta.
(CNN) — An unassuming vegetable commonly associated with flatulence has been a big hit. As the nursery rhyme goes, “Beans, beans, magic fruit, the more you eat, the more you toot,” beans will no longer be infamous solely for their fiber content, but for their role as a key nutrient. Probably. Source of protein.
Beans and their legumes, peas and lentils, received nutritional attention Tuesday during the 2025 U.S. Nutrition Advisory Board. Announcing scientific guidelines It could shape federal nutrition advice for the next five years.
“What we recommend is My platethe government’s food guide on how to eat a healthy diet, says, “Start with beans, peas and lentils.” said Dr. Christopher Gardner, the group’s leader. Nutrition research group.
“We advised that meat, including red meat, should be moved to the end of the protein list,” he added.
The committee found that there were few health benefits when replacing one animal source containing saturated fat with another animal source lower in saturated fat, such as red meat, he said.
“It has to do with fiber. Meat doesn’t have fiber,” Gardner said. “But when you switch from a single animal source to beans, peas, lentils, or grains and vegetables, you not only get less saturated fat, but you also get fiber. So the health results are more convincing. It was powerful.”
Why are legumes good for your health?
Legumes, which include about a dozen types of beans and peas, such as black-eyed peas, lentils, chickpeas, edamame, and peanuts, have long been used as an inexpensive source of protein, vitamins, complex carbohydrates, and fiber. I’m here.
All leguminous plants are full of nutrientsIt contains copper, iron, magnesium, potassium, folate, zinc, the essential amino acid lysine, and lots of protein and fiber.
Experts say it may be best to eat a variety of beans because each type of bean has a different nutritional content. Azuki or something red mung beanscontains more fiber than many other varieties, but fava beans It is rich in lutein, an antioxidant. black And dark red kidney beans Rich in potassium, chickpeas It has a lot of magnesium.
Legumes have always played an important role in many of the world’s food cultures, including award-winning food products. plant-based mediterranean dietLinked to. longer life.
Dr. David Katz, a preventive and lifestyle medicine expert and founder of a nonprofit organization, says that in addition to the nutritional benefits, people eating more beans and legumes are good for the planet. said. A commitment to true healtha global coalition of experts specializing in evidence-based lifestyle medicine.
Methane from cow burps and farts is contribute to climate changeand request 20 times the land compared to plants such as legumes, according to the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy group.
“In 2017, the following study was conducted. Loma Linda University researchers He suggested that if most Americans routinely replaced beef with beans in their daily diet, they could achieve nearly two-thirds of the greenhouse gas emissions reductions promised by the United Nations by 2020. paris agreementis a legally binding international treaty on climate change,” Katz wrote in an email.
“Most people may not associate bean consumption with reducing gas…but when it comes to the health of the planet, it’s exactly the case!”
Similar recommendations with a little twist
The advisory committee also recommended that Americans over the age of 2 reduce their intake of red and processed meats, foods and beverages with added salt, saturated fat, and sugar, and refined grains, which are commonly found in many ultra-processed foods. recommended to reduce.
Instead, a healthy diet should be high in vegetables, fruits, legumes, nuts, whole grains, fish and other seafood, vegetable oils, unsaturated fats, and plant-based foods, the report says.
“The ultimate goal of the advisory committee is to eat more plants, balance calories, and avoid eating too much sodium, sugar, and saturated fat. That was written into the guidelines in 1980 and has been the case ever since. That’s what we keep hearing,” molecular biologist and nutritionist Dr. Marion Nestle, Paulette Goddard Professor Emeritus of Nutrition, Food Research, and Public Health at New York University, said in an email.
One notable difference is that the committee de-emphasized fat-free and low-fat dairy products as an item to include in a healthy eating pattern and proposed removing them from the list of main foods.
Gardner said the change is due to the commission’s new focus on health equity in nutrition. To accomplish that, the subcommittee was tasked with conducting research to ensure that races and cultures other than white and Western were considered.
“Last committees in 2015 and 2020 included low-fat dairy products,” Gardner said. “But when you consider race and ethnicity, dairy isn’t even an issue. That makes perfect sense. Many people in the world are lactose intolerant.”
The committee also suggested reducing intake of starchy foods. While legumes are technically starchy vegetables, Katz says there’s a big difference.
“Simple starches, white bread, all refined grains, and sweets and salty snacks have little nutritional benefit of their own,” he says. “They also reduce the proportion of your total daily calories that you allocate to the foods that most reliably promote health: vegetables, fruits, legumes, whole grains, nuts, and seeds.”
No action taken against ultra-processed foods
For the first time, the advisory committee addressed the potential role of ultra-processed foods in the United States. obesity epidemic. But the committee limited its scientific analysis to one question: How do ultra-processed foods affect growth, weight gain, and obesity over the lifespan?
Answering that question has proven difficult, as most of the research in this area is observational and focuses on the effects of ultra-processed foods on chronic diseases such as heart disease and diabetes.
Because of the limitations imposed on the study, the committee was only able to findlimited” evidence Studies suggest that ultra-processed foods can cause weight gain and obesity in children, adolescents, and adults of all ages. The committee did not recommend any action against ultra-processed foods and referred the issue to advisors for the 2030-2035 U.S. Dietary Guidelines.
“In five years, we hope that we don’t see another five years of this happening again,” said the committee member, a professor of nutrition at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston and Harvard Medical School. said Dr. Deirdre Tobias, assistant professor of medicine and obesity and nutrition epidemiologist. .
“There’s going to be an explosion of research, so if anything, revisiting the research is probably going to become even more of a priority,” Tobias said at the committee’s May meeting. .
The commission was not responsible for making recommendations on alcohol consumption and sustainability. Other groups are also considering these issues, the report said.
Since the Scientific Recommendation Report is just a recommendation, the next step in the process is to write the actual report. 2025-2030 U.S. Dietary Guidelines; The new guidelines could also address ultra-processed foods, if other data and public comments are considered by federal nutrition scientists who write the final document.
Nestlé said what the final U.S. dietary guidelines for 2025-30 recommend will likely depend on who heads the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under the Trump administration.
Robert F. Kennedy Jr.President-elect Donald Trump, who has been nominated to lead the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, has announced that he wants to regulate chemicals in food. President Kennedy also wants to limit access to soda and ultra-processed foods in school lunches and lunches. Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Programor snap.
“Government agencies may decide to recommend reducing the intake of ultra-processed foods,” Nestlé said. “We may also decide that the evidence on saturated fats does not justify advice to limit dairy products, or even red meat.”
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