Beans are not just good for your heart, as the saying goes. Their high-fiber content helps control your blood sugar and moves foods through your gut. That makes them good for preventing other chronic conditions, such as diabetes and cancer.

Montreal cook/blogger Holly Botner has a great recipe for Greek lima beans, inspired by the wealth of great Greek restaurants in Montreal. I like to add some oregano for extra flavor as well as its cancer-fighting properties.(Scroll down to the last post called “Eat Your Avastin.”)

Of course, beans can leave some incendiary after-effects. Once upon a time, many of us cooked beans with kombu, a Japanese seaweed, to mitigate this problem, but sea vegies soak up radiation so that’s probably not a good idea these days.  Try some Beano instead.  Chew foods well, and do as the Indians do–Chomp on some fennel or cumin seeds at dessert time. Ironically, many foods that give us gas are also good for us.

p.s. If you have a healthy recipe you want to share, please send it to me at hsugarmill@sympatico.ca.