From Afterthought to Staple: Expanding use of pulses as food ingredient in U.S. diets

Photo compliments of ADM. Consider, for a moment, the dried bean. It is a seed unadorned. It lacks the voluptuousness of a red, ripe tomato. It can't promise the alluring aroma of a freshly peeled orange. And, in the American diet, it is an afterthought compared with the ubiquitous seeds of cereal grains like wheat, oats, and corn. That's a shame because, when you consider its qualities as both a crop and a food, nothing beats a bean. Dried beans are pulses, or grain legumes—a larger category that includes everything from pinto beans and chickpeas to lentils and split peas. Pulses are nutritional powerhouses packed with fiber, protein, micronutrients, and amino acids. They can lower cholesterol, reduce the risk of…