Latest / Fork U with Dr. Terry Simpson
The Benevolent Bean: Civilization's Forgotten Protein
For years, beans have suffered from an image problem.
They've been called "the poor man's meat," joked about for causing gas, and often relegated to the side of the plate. Yet for thousands of years, beans, lentils, chickpeas, and peas—collectively known as pulses—were among the most important foods on Earth.
If bread supplied the calories that built cities, beans supplied much of the protein that sustained them.
Long before protein powders and high-protein snack bars, civilizations from Rome to India relied on pulses as an everyday source of nourishment. The Roman laborer's bowl of puls—a…
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