Beans are experiencing a renaissance due to their affordability and nutritional benefits. They are being recognized as a cool and versatile food option.
Key points
Beans are affordable and nutritious.
They are versatile in cooking.
The popularity of beans is increasing.
In this illustration, a giant kidney bean flexes its arms against a backdrop of cans of beans, where various types of beans are exploding out of the tops.
Kaitlin Brito for NPR
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A hill of beans isn't so trivial anymore.
In fact, it sounds pretty good.
Interest is surging in the tiny, bulbous legumes sometimes met with a shrug, as more Americans increasingly seek out cheap, healthy and inventive food.
Bean-centric recipes are abundant on social media — yep, there are bean-fluencers on BeanTok. Consumers can now buy trendier bean-based products, and one heirloom-bean service is so popular that it has a waitlist of tens of thousands of people. (Some bean lovers have taken to referring to themselves as the "leguminati.") The children's show Bluey is even being used to market beans to kids.
"There definitely is a renaissance," said Tim McGreevy, CEO of USA Pulses, the trade group for the pulse crop industry, which includes dry beans, lentils, chickpeas and dry peas. "Beans can help you feel good. That's their power."
Of course, there's nothing new about Phaseolus vulgaris and other members of the legume family. The primitive crops were critical to early agriculture and, in more recent times, have been a cheaper alternative to animal proteins. Legumes have long been a central feature of many cuisines, from dal in India and other South Asian countries to the beans-and-rice dishes common across Latin America and beyond.
But backers say the bean has been cast aside by some for too long and is an ideal solution to some of our modern problems. For one, Americans don't get enough fiber, which is abundant in beans. And as food prices continue to rise, beans offer a low-cost, nutritious protein source that can keep you as full as beef, one study published in TheJournal of Nutrition found.
"Here's a food that's affordable. We don't take advantage of it. It's clear that it has health benefits," said Henry J. Thompson, a Colorado State University professor who has studied the effects of beans on human health. "Hey, America, wake up!"
"What you eat when you can't get your hands on meat"
Beans not only are an ancient crop but were one of the things that made ancient agriculture possible at all, according to Joël Broekaert, author of A History of the World in Twelve Beans.
That's because beans are nitrogen-fixing plants, which means they contain bacteria that replenish nitrogen in the soil. Bean plants help keep soil healthy when grown alongside crops that absorb a lot of nitrogen, such as grains.
"You cannot sustain agriculture on growing grains alone, because they will deplete the soil. You get soil fatigue. They take up all the nutrients," Broekaert said.
Bean cultivation dates back thousands of years, and the plants have been a critical part of the human diet throughout history. But at some point in the last century, the increased availability of meat due to large-scale food production shoved beans aside, Broekaert said.
"When we started industrializing meat production, [meat] became much cheaper and much more readily, widely available," he said. "And then beans are, like, that's what you eat when you can't get your hands on meat."
McGreevy said that U.S. consumption of beans, peas and lentils was higher during the first half of the 20th century — particularly during the Great Depression — than it is today and that pulse popularity tends to increase during periods of economic uncertainty.
"We had this big spike in consumption during COVID, because people were cooking from home and it was a shelf-stable food that was affordable," he said.
Beef prices have surged in recent years, and sales of beans have increased. One can of beans, which is typically about 3.5 servings, can cost less than $1.
Bean nutrition is more than just fiber
Holding packs of beans packaged in plastic, Claudia Garibay packs orders at bean supplier Rancho Gordo's factory in Napa, California, on March 4, 2020. She is surrounded by cardboard boxes and shelves holding packs of beans.
Claudia Garibay packs orders at bean supplier Rancho Gordo's factory in Napa, Calif., on March 4, 2020.
Liz Hafalia/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
Liz Hafalia/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images
Another reason for beans' growing popularity is their many health benefits. They keep you full, keep you regular, help maintain your blood sugar, lower cholesterol and are associated with a lower risk of cancer.
Beans are well known for being packed with fiber, a nutrient lacking in the typical American diet. One study published in Current Developments in Nutrition found that just 7.4% of American adults are getting the recommended daily amount of fiber.
Thompson said pulse crops such as beans are believed to have a positive effect on the microbes that live in our gut. "What we and others have found is the types of microbes that like to eat pulse fiber are beneficial microbes, and the microbes that tend to be associated with diseases are suppressed by pulse consumption," he said. "There's your benefit, and it's pretty simple."
What's less known is that some beans also contain a roughly 1-to-1 ratio of fiber and protein, Thompson said. There are around 8 grams of protein in half a cup of cooked kidney, navy, cannellini or black beans.
When the Trump administration updated the Dietary Guidelines for Americans in January, beans, peas and lentils were moved from the vegetable category to the protein category. A group of more than 130 physicians said in a joint letter to the administration last year that prioritizing beans, peas and lentils as protein sources was "long overdue" and would help "dispel the myth that plant-based proteins are 'incomplete' or inadequate sources of protein."
(The 2025 Dietary Guidelines Advisory Committee also recommended emphasizing the consumption of beans, peas and lentils and reducing the amount of red and processed meat that people eat.)
Of course, there is no getting around beans' reputation as the musical fruit. Passing gas can be a side effect of eating beans, thanks to the complex sugar raffinose, which is plentiful in the legumes. But nutrition experts say slowly increasing your fiber intake allows your body to adjust to the nutrient and can help reduce gas.
It's hip to be fabiform (aka bean shaped)
Beans are healthy and cheap, but bean champions are also talking up their tastiness too.
"You should eat beans because they're delicious and you've taken them for granted," said Steve Sando, owner and operator of the heirloom-bean company Rancho Gordo.
Sando founded the company in 2001, when he said there wasn't much interest in heirloom beans — traditional nonhybrid varieties that aren't grown at large scales. But demand has steadily grown since then, and the company has become a darling of the bean world. (Sando said he lovingly refers to the company's devotees as "bean freaks" and the "leguminati.") Rancho Gordo now sells about 2.5 million pounds of beans each year.
In 2013, the company, which is based in Napa, Calif., started operating a bean club because Sando thought it would be a humorous play on the wine clubs in the region. Today, the Rancho Gordo Bean Club has 30,000 active members who pay $49.95 plus tax every three months for a box of six 1-pound bags of beans and another Rancho Gordo product. Another 32,000 people are on the waiting list, he said.
Sando said people have responded to the idea that beans themselves are worth eating and that cooking them from dry may prove a fun and rewarding experience (if you've got the time).
"There's a victory in making a pot of beans," he said. "You cooked it for two hours or so, and you turned it into something creamy and delicious."
For Madeline Schapiro, her love of legumes began after she decided to increase the amount of beans in her diet in 2017 in an attempt to deal with undiagnosed health problems she was experiencing.
Multiple containers and pots of bean-containing dishes are on white sheets that are spread on the ground. A few people are sitting on the sheets or on the grass near the sheets.
Dozens of people brought a variety of dishes to a bean meetup hosted by Madeline Schapiro in Berkeley, California.
Madeline Schapiro
Madeline Schapiro
"I started eating a bunch of beans in my college dining hall, and that was nine years ago," Schapiro said. "Beans changed my life. That's an understatement. Beans gave me my life back."
Now a social media "bean-fluencer" who posts under the name Bean Supporter to her tens of thousands of followers, Schapiro extols the health benefits of beans in her videos while showcasing their (often unexpected) versatility in the kitchen. Some of her recipes include lentil granola, bean-ana bread and a mung bean scallion pancake. She has even started hosting potluck-style bean meetups in Berkeley, Calif., which have drawn dozens of attendees who've brought dishes like pinto bean yogurt.
"Beans are truly one of the biggest superfoods there is," she said. "I just hope people can realize that, because I think one of the most common misconceptions in our food system is that, to eat healthy, you have to spend a lot of money."
The global plot to get you to eat more beans
Last year, USA Pulses announced that it aims to double both the American production and consumption of pulses by 2030. (The United Nations kicked off a similar campaign in 2015 to double global pulse consumption by 2028.)
McGreevy, of USA Pulses, who also owns a Washington state farm where he grows chickpeas and lentils as well as other crops, said the health and environmental effects of growing and eating pulses are unambiguous.
"The science is very clear, and it's been clear for decades and decades and thousands of years, actually," he said.
To achieve those goals, McGreevy said USA Pulses is working to effect public policy changes such as the new dietary guidelines and also collaborate with food manufacturers on ready-to-eat products incorporating pulses, such as lentil and chickpea pastas.
The group is also running a public awareness campaign to urge Americans to eat a half cup of pulses each day. (The U.S. Agriculture Department recommends three to four servings of protein per day for a 2,000-calorie diet. One-half cup of beans, peas or lentils is one serving of protein.)
Thompson, of Colorado State University, said people who want to reap the benefits of pulses should eat a "therapeutic amount" of 1.5 cups per day, which is equal to about one 14.5-ounce can, and ensure they are getting a variety.
"You go to Qdoba, and [they say] 'Black beans or pinto?'" he said. "What do I always say? I'd like both, please."
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