Health Benefits Of Lentils

Lentils have been deemed as one of the healthiest foods in the world. They are found in black, yellow, green, brown, red and orange. While they may appear tiny in size, they are loaded with vitamins and minerals.
Here are a few reasons why everybody should be adding lentils into their diet.

1. Reduces Cholesterol

Lentils are made of cholesterol friendly ingredients. One study found out that that since lentils are high in fiber, it helped reduce total cholesterol levels by 7%. The most dangerous Very Low Density Lipo-protein (VLDL) went down by 12.5%.

2. Keeps Your Heart Healthy

Along with their high fiber content, lentils are rich in folate and magnesium, and low in sodium. These properties are necessary for a healthy heart. Magnesium helps to carry oxygen and nutrients to different parts of the body, folate is necessary to reduce homocysteine levels. Since lentils are known to reduce cholesterol levels, it helps prevent plaque buildup and creates a healthy environment for your arteries. This reduces chances of heart issues.

3. Stabilizes Blood Sugar Level

If you are diabetic, you need lentils as part of your diet. One study proves that lentils, owing to their high fiber content and low starch presence, helped to reduce plasma glucose levels and insulin levels. Another study claimed that lentils helped to trap glucose from carbohydrates, a property useful to prevent diabetes.

4. Gives You A Boost Of Energy

If you are low on energy, lentils are a source of power boosting ingredients. Since they are rich in fiber, complex carbohydrates and iron, lentils are important for energy production. Another great thing about lentils are that they are heavy on the protein side, making them an excellent choice for vegans. In fact, lentils are one of the highest plant based protein foods in the world!

5. Great For Digestive Health

Dietary fiber is key to healthy digestion. Since lentils are rich in dietary fiber, they are known to clean up your digestive system. If you are looking to treat any digestive related issue, including constipation, inflammatory bowel diseases, and diarrhea, include lentils in your diet.

6. For Better Control Of Your Weight

While lentils are high in proteins, fiber, vitamins, they are low in calories. They keep you full for long while giving you a boost of nutrients. One study claims that lentils help to tackle cravings for sugar. You could make soups, curries, and salads.

7. Helps To Balance Your Body’s pH Level

Alkaline protein sources are important to maintain your body’s pH level. They also play an important role in improving your digestive system. The presence of good bacteria should be more than harmful bacteria for healthy digestion. Lentils are a source of promoting the growth of good bacteria and it is also one of the highest alkaline protein sources.

8. Build Up Your Immunity

Since lentils are a great option to improve digestive health, and keeping healthy levels of cholesterol and blood sugar levels, it’s no wonder they help to strengthen your immune system. Iron, manganese, folate, zinc, and fiber are all needed for a strong immune system.

9. Promotes healthy pregnancy
Pregnancy is not all smooth sailing, especially if the mother is unaware or unable to meet nutritional requirements. One of the most important nutrients during pregnancy is folic acid, which ensures healthy brain development and avoids neural tune defects. In addition, women who supplement / consume enough folic acid throughout their pregnancy are unlikely to have premature deliveries, and also prevents development of spina bifida.

10. Helps buffer the effects of free radicals
Free radicals are compounds that are missing an electron, and are actively seeking ways to become stable. However, this doesn't always happen, and in stead the result is damage to numerous cells in its quest to be come inert. This is why antioxidants are essential in your diet. Basically, antioxidants have a way of donating one of these electrons to the free radical, allowing it to calm down and be eliminated from the body. Manganese found in lentils play an important part in the formation of  a powerful natural antioxidant possessed by the body named manganese superoxide dismutase.

11. May help prevent cancer
A large aspect of cancer is believed to be associated with generated free radical damage, which explains why diets rich in natural antioxidants, such as the vegan diet, tend to have less reported cancer diagnoses made. While lentils have lots of different antioxidants, they also contain  small amounts of the mineral selenium, which plays a unique in prevention of cancer. For e.g., selenium suppresses the rate at which tumours can grow, sometimes stalling it so that the immune system can naturally get rid of it. Selenium also enhances the detoxification potential of liver, bolstering removal of some cancer promoting compounds in the process. As selenium is not often food in foods, lentils should become an important part of your diet.

12. Helps maintain an ideal blood tonicity
Blood tonicity is a measure of the electrolytes found in it, being composed primarily of sodium and potassium concentration. Typically, we consume much more sodium than is recommended, while simultaneously not getting enough potassium in. This paves the way for blood chemistry disturbances, manifested an ill-timed muscle cramps and general poor conduction in nerves. Potassium helps offset such a scenario, as it helps boost sodium excretion and rebalance the equilibrium state of blood and fluids.

13. Prevents blood vessel atherosclerosis
This is the accumulation of plaque on blood vessel walls, which is a major contributing factor to heart disease and stroke. Lentils, thanks to their high level of fibre and antioxidants, prevents this oxidative process from occurring, and inhibits adherence of the thick plaques to the blood vessel walls. Atherosclerosis is known to have a strong inflammatory link.

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