January 6th is an important day. Why? Because January 6th is National Bean Day (at least in the United States)! A day dedicated to beans sounds like the perfect holiday to me. My only real question is, why don’t we get the day off work??
For Bean Day last year, I wrote about bean songs. Yes, that IS a thing, and bean songs are brilliant! Check them out and let me know which one is your favorite.
This year, though, I thought I would take this chance to do two things: 1. share a short list of some of the reasons beans are so special; and 2. introduce a fantastic new bean campaign. There are a lot of exciting things happening in Bean World!
Why Eat Beans on Bean Day and Every Day?
Before we talk about Beans Is How, I want to take a moment to say why people think beans are so important, and why I’ve chosen to essentially center my life around beans: beans are perfect.
- Beans are incredibly unique nutritionally and a rich source of dietary fiber, protein, and vitamins and minerals, such as potassium. They are basically the best natural source of fiber you can find!! You simply will not find another food with this impressive of a nutritional profile. Think about vegetables – they often have a good amount of fiber, but no protein. Think about animal proteins: rich in protein, but zero fiber. But beans are high in both fiber and protein! This helps keep us satiated (i.e., full).
- Beans are associated with a wide range of human health benefits, including chronic disease prevention and the promotion of healthy weight maintenance and gut health.
- Beans are a culturally relevant and important food in cuisines around the world and have been for thousands of years.
- Beans offer many benefits for sustainability, including improving soil health, requiring less water than other crops and sources of protein, and resulting in lower greenhouse gas emissions than other sources of protein.
- Beans are affordable, which is important for food security and food equity.
- Beans have a long-shelf life, which can also help us reduce food waste.
- Beans are delicious and soooo versatile! You can use beans to make everything, from dips, to salads, to soups, to desserts… and much more.
As you may suspect, I could go on. But, in short: Beans are the perfect food and they’re going to help us save the world! A bold statement, but I truly believe it, and Bean Day seems like an especially perfect day to say it.
I would love to hear in the comments some of the reasons that you love beans!
Celebrate Bean Day by Learning About Beans Is How
I’m intentionally keeping this description short so you can go to their website and explore to read about the Beans Is How mission in their own words. Reading about a bean campaign certainly seems like the right thing to do on Bean Day, right? Especially if you are also eating beans and listening to bean songs. 😉
Beans Is How is an exciting new campaign to increase global bean consumption by 2028. Why would they want to do that? Well, because how are we going to fix a lot of the problems we are facing in the world? Beans. Beans is how.
