About Beans
History
Beans are one of the oldest foods known to man and they have been an important part of the human diet for thousands of years. Beans were one of the earliest food crops cultivated. Common beans were domesticated about 7,000 years ago in both Peru and southern Mexico. In fact, in Mexico, the Indians developed white beans, black beans and all other colors and color patterns. By the time Portuguese and Spanish explorers discovered the New World, several varieties of beans were already flourishing. The early explorers and traders subsequently shared American bean varieties around the world, and by the early 17th century, beans also were popular crops in Europe, Africa and Asia.
Nutrition
Beans are one of the most nutritionally complete foods available. No other foods comes close to beans in providing protein, iron, magnesium, zinc, potassium and soluble fiber together in high amounts.
Traditional Bean Preparation
Kitchen cooks have typically had only two choices for preparing beans; buy them pre-cooked in a can, or cook them from scratch. Both of these options have drawbacks.
Canned beans are a good alternative to beans prepared from scratch when you consider the time- savings involved. However, canned beans taste "canned." You also pay for a lot of water or syrup, that’s inside that can!