The Bulk of High-Fiber Foods Are Easy to Fix

Is there a bag of dried beans or peas at the back of your cupboard? Or a bag of whole wheat flour? If you’re like many people, you probably know that these foods are good for you. That’s why you bought them. But what on earth do you do with dried lentils or split peas?

Adding whole grains and legumes (beans and peas) to your diet is a lot easier than you might think. Not only are they easy to cook, they’re filling, low in fat, high in protein and an excellent source of fiber. They’re also inexpensive and readily available in most grocery stores.

For good health, we need 25 to 35 grams of dietary fiber a day, according to the National Cancer Institute. A half-cup of most cooked beans contains 5 grams of fiber and a slice of whole grain bread has 2 to 3 grams.

“People who eat a high-fiber diet are less likely to have problems such as cancer of the colon, breast and prostate and digestive disorders,” said Leslie Butz, MS, RD, a dietitian in private practice with Family Medical Center in Mission Viejo. “Fiber can also lower blood cholesterol levels.”

There are a wide variety of whole grains and legumes, including whole wheat flour, wheat germ, barley, millet, bulgur, oats, oatmeal, oat bran, oat flour, kasha, brown rice, wild rice, rice germ, tabbouli, black beans, black-eyed peas, garbanzo (chickpeas), kidney and red beans, lentils, lima beans, navy beans, pinto beans, split peas and soy beans.

Incorporating these foods into your diet can add variety to your meals. Just keep the following tips in mind:

* When it comes to cooking beans and whole grains, don’t be intimidated. “With a little planning, preparing these foods is a lot easier than you might think,” Butz said.

For most legumes, except lentils and split peas, it’s important to soak them overnight. This shortens the cooking time.

“The night before, just open a bag of beans, throw them in a pot and cover them with water. Then in the morning, change the water, add spices and cook them for about an hour, or put them in a crock pot, and dinner will be ready when you get home,” said Susan Kishiyama, MS, RD, who teaches the class Current Issues in Nutrition at Orange Coast College in Costa Mesa.

Cooking brown rice is no great mystery, either.

“Generally, use twice as much water than rice,” said Penelope De Long, RD, nutrition specialist at Irvine Medical Center. “Place the rice and water in a pan and bring it to a boil. Then reduce the heat and let the rice simmer with the lid on for 25 to 40 minutes, depending on the size of your pan.” (The wider the pan, the more quickly the rice will cook.)

Or try microwaving. Kishiyama puts 2 1/2 cups of warm water and 1 cup of brown rice in a covered dish on high for four minutes, then reduces the heat to medium for another 4 to 5 minutes.

* Freeze for future use. Because making beans and rice takes planning, make large quantities and freeze meal-size portions. “Beans will keep for up to six months, and brown rice also freezes well,” Kishiyama said.

* Make meat a side dish. Although meat is a good source of protein, it is high in fat and has zero fiber. The American Heart Assn. recommends that we eat no more than five to seven ounces of lean meat per day, De Long said. You can meet this requirement by making high fiber, low fat, protein-rich beans, breads and rice the main focus of your meals and adding small amounts of meat.

For instance, when cooking bean soups that call for meat such as pork or hamburger, substitute the fatter meat with leaner meats, or reduce the amount of meat used.

“If the recipe contains pork, try a small amount of turkey sausage or turkey bacon,” Butz said. “Or if you’re making chili that calls for hamburger, try cutting the meat by a half or even a quarter or add ground turkey instead. A small amount of meat added to beans is actually good because it increases iron absorption.”

* Prepare balanced meatless dishes. If you want to cook without meat, make sure that the meal is protein complete.

“Beans and peas are an incomplete protein by themselves,” De Long said. “You must eat them with grains like rice, whole grain bread, oats, corn tortillas, barley or pasta.”

* Be creative. Use your imagination when cooking with whole grains and beans. Rice and beans always make a great dish and can be seasoned with just about anything. “Rice and vegetables are also really tasty,” De Long said.

Use pinto beans to make refried beans, which you can roll into tortillas or stuff in a hot-dog bun with a little low-fat cheese. Cold salads are great topped with garbanzo and kidney beans, sesame and sunflower seeds and nuts such as cashews, almonds and walnuts.

Kishiyama has done a lot of experimenting with beans and grains and has a lentil-patty recipe that she uses as an alternative to a hamburger.

“I saute half a cup of onions and celery and a little garlic in water. Then I mix this with two cups of cooked lentils, three beaten egg whites and a half cup of chopped pecans.

“After the mixture sits for five minutes, I form patties, roll them in bread crumbs and bake them in a 350 degree oven, 20 minutes on each side. There is 4 grams of fiber in each patty, unlike hamburgers which have zero fiber and are high in fat,” she said.

Eat the patty on whole grain bread for even more fiber.

* Incorporate whole grain flours and oats. Instead of using all-purpose white flour when baking, use richer whole grain flours. Try whole grain pancake and waffle mixes. Top casseroles with oats, wheat germ, bran or the mild grain millet. Mix barley with vegetables.

* Reach for whole grain snacks. “Compared to other snack foods, air-popped popcorn is a great source of fiber,” Butz said. There is 1 gram of fiber per cup. Or try munching on whole grain cereals. There are several on the market that are high in fiber; check the labels before buying.

* Fresh is best. Remember that processing generally cuts down on fiber content. Cooking your own dried beans is usually best. “Canned beans are cooked under pressure, which means you probably won’t get as much insoluble fiber, and they tend to be higher in sodium,” De Long said.

* Read labels. Don’t be easily persuaded by products that say they contain a lot of fiber. It’s important to do some investigating.

“Many packages can be misleading,” Butz said. “Some bread labels, for instance, will say ‘enriched wheat flour’ or ‘unbleached wheat flour,’ which is the same as white flour and not a whole grain. Look for the word whole before wheat flour and make sure it’s the first ingredient.”

Other good whole grain ingredients to look for include bran, barley, oat flour, soy flour and nuts and seeds.

* Count fiber grams. When reading labels, look for the term dietary fiber. “Two grams of dietary fiber per serving is fair, 5 grams (is) good and 8 grams excellent,” De Long said. “Keep track of your fiber intake by adding up the total amount of grams you eat throughout the day.”

If you run across the words crude fiber, multiply the gram amount by three to five because this is an old way of measuring fiber that underestimates fiber content, Butz said.

* Start slow. Don’t overload your system with too much fiber at once. If your body’s not used to beans, for instance, gas, bloating and diarrhea can occur.

“Add no more than two or three new fiber foods to your diet for the first week or two,” Kishiyama said. “Then continue to increase fiber by about 5 grams per day.”