About Mung Beans!

Mung beans have been around since 1,500 B.C, about 3.500 years ago. Mung beans were first domesticated in India, where they grew as wild plants. They have been grown in India for medicinal purpose. Archeological evidence shows that mung beans were growing in the Harappan civilization in the Punjab and Haryana areas of Indian about 4,500 years ago! They then spread to China.

Records show that in Thailand, mung beans have been eaten for at least 2,200 years. Around the 9th or 10th century, mung beans also came to be cultivated in Africa since they grow easily in warm climates and helped feed undernourished populations.

They require temperatures between 80° to 90°F, and can handle drought like conditions. They make a beautiful plant with white flowers; and, according to one mung bean gardener extraordinaire, they grow well with all other beans, cilantro, cucumbers, radish and spinach but don’t like to be near tomatoes, potatoes, onions or garlic.

This is why Mung beans thrive in California.

According to Food For Awakening:
“Many of us may know mung beans in their sprouted form, the long white crunchy “veggie” used in many Chinese or Vietnamese stir fries and other dishes.  But the mung bean legume (not vegetable) has many forms: whole, split with skins on, split and hulled, flour, and of course sprouted. Whole mung beans are small round beans with a bright green skin and a yellowish color on the inside (see pic above). Mung dhal is the split and hulled version, which is the internal yellowish color and much smaller (thus making dhal the quickest to cook). They are a very versatile and highly nutritious legume, popular in many Indian dishes and easily adaptable to an array of dishes from hummus to veggie mung-burgers and even mung-beet marinara sauce.  A notable advantage of mung beans is that they are deemed by many as the easiest bean to digest (far easier than chick peas – which are considered by many, including myself, the most difficult… hence the mung bean hummus).”

According to draxe.com, the nutrient values of Mung beans are:

Nutrient values:
One cup of cooked mung beans contains the following (percentages based on the RDAs for the average adult female):

212 calories
14 grams of protein
15 grams of fiber
1 gram of fat
4 grams of sugar
321 micrograms of folate (100%)
97 milligrams of magnesium (36%)
0.33 milligrams of vitamin b1 thiamine (36%)
0.6 milligrams of manganese (33%)
7 milligrams of zinc (24%)
0.8 milligrams of vitamin B5 pantothenic acid (8%)
0.13 milligrams of vitamin B6 (11%)
55 milligrams of calcium (5%)

If you sprout these beans and eat about 1 cup of sprouts, you will be eating about 3 grams of protein and 2 grams of fiber.

According to Wikipedia:

Nutritional value per 100 g (3.5 oz)
Energy  441 kJ (105 kcal)
Carbohydrates
19.15 g
Sugars  2 g
Dietary fiber   7.6 g
Fat
0.38 g
Protein
7.02 g
Vitamins
Thiamine (B1)   (14%) 0.164 mg
Riboflavin (B2) (5%) 0.061 mg
Niacin (B3)     (4%) 0.577 mg
Pantothenic acid (B5)   (8%) 0.41 mg
Vitamin B6      (5%) 0.067 mg
Folate (B9)     (40%) 159 μg
Vitamin C       (1%) 1 mg
Vitamin E       (1%) 0.15 mg
Vitamin K       (3%) 2.7 μg
Minerals
Calcium (3%) 27 mg
Iron    (11%) 1.4 mg
Magnesium       (14%) 48 mg
Manganese       (14%) 0.298 mg
Phosphorus      (14%) 99 mg
Potassium       (6%) 266 mg
Zinc    (9%) 0.84 mg

Health authorities have recommended that plant based diets are more beneficial to one’s health than meat diets. Both contain protein, but plant based diets not only supply protein to your diet, but fiber, and many vitamins.