Beans, beans

Beans, beans, good for your heart..I usually cook from dried beans but as any parent will know there are times that you need meals in a hurry. You need those meals yesterday. That’s where canned beans are handy but nearly all canned foods have BPA in the can lining.

What’s a little BPA in can lining going to do, I hear you say? Unfortunately A LOT!! In 2007, the Environmental Working Group tested canned food bought across America, and found BPA in more than half of them at levels they call "200 times the government's traditional safe level of exposure " within single servings (Lloyd Alter, 2008).

There is growing awareness about BPA's toxicity, and laboratory links suggest it contributes to trends in human diseases -- a chilling list including breast and prostate cancers, increases in urogenital abnormalities in male babies, a decline in semen quality in men, early onset of puberty in girls, metabolic disorders including Type 2 diabetes and obesity, and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (Nena Baker, The Body Toxic: How the Hazardous Chemistry of
Everyday Things Threatens Our Health and Well-being, 2009).

Luckily you can get Eden Organics here in Australia. Now I’m all for buying locally as much as I can (I shop for everything in my little locale including Eden’s Organics) but I now prefer my food toxin / poision free. Thus this opens me to consuming imported foods. Eden’s Organics stopped using BPA in their cans in 1999, so are a great back up for your cupboard.

The catch? They cost $1 more than standard organic canned beans which do have BPA. For me, I save money wherever I can but don’t compromise on the things that are important to me. Eating more whole foods, and cooking from scratch means I save money with our food shopping, and that we can buy these beans and still not compromise our meagre weekly budget.

$1 in my mind means that I am not poisoning myself, my son or my husband with hormone disruptors. So dried beans, canned beans are all great options in a healthy diet and if I can avoid BPA than it’s a bonus!!

“Beans, beans good for your heart, the more you eat the more you fart. The more you fart, the better you feel, so lets eat beans for every meal”. After all girls don’t fart do they (wink, wink).