Root crops, legumes, and your health

By Trinidad P. Trinidad, PhD
Scientist, FNRI

Do you know that many root crops are good sources of dietary fiber and help prevent risks for diabetes mellitus, cardiovascular diseases, and cancer?  These root crops include ube, gabi, tugi, potato, kamote and cassava, and legumes such as cowpea, mung bean, pole sitao, chickpeas, green peas, peanut, pigeon pea, kidney beans, lima beans and soybeans.

The dietary fiber content of root crops ranges 4.6-13.5 g/100 g while legumes ranges 20.9-46.9 g/100 g, a Food and Nutrition Research Institute study showed.

Root crops and legumes intake help maintain weight and prevent risk for diabetes mellitus.  The viscosity and fibrous structure of root crops and legumes slow down digestion and release of glucose in the blood.  This process maintains blood glucose in normal condition.

Since glucose is released slowly, it will not be easily stored in the body thereby keeping a person's normal weight.  As sources of dietary fiber, root crops and legumes provide satiety effects and can slow down feeling for hunger leading to less food intake.

FNRI studied the glucose response or glycemic index (GI) of root crops and legumes in normal and diabetic persons.  Both root crops and legumes have low GIs at (<60).  Ube has the lowest GI (39) and cassava has the highest (54) among the root crops.

Among the legumes covered by the study, chickpeas has the lowest (5) and mungbean has the highest (13) GI.  Legumes have significantly lower GIs than root crops (P<0.05). 

Lower GIs of food means better for proper control and management of diabetes mellitus and in maintaining body weights.

How can root crops and legumes prevent cardiovascular disease risk?  As sources of dietary fiber, both can prevent re-absorption of bile acids in liver.  Bile acids are converted to cholesterol in the liver that go to the blood and increases serum cholesterol responsible for developing plaques in arteries.

What can be the possible role of root crops and legumes in cancer risk prevention?  The dietary fiber present in root crops and legumes are fermented in the large intestine or colon into short chain fatty acids or SCFA.  SCFA can bind with toxins and excreted in the feces.  These toxins are present in the colon and are responsible for the formation of tumors and cancer.

[For more information on the nutritional and health benefits of root crops and legumes, please contact The Director, FNRI-DOST at Tel. Nos. 837 2934 or 837 2071 loc. 2281].