What Are the Edamame Health Benefits?

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Food does play a major role in our health. There’s a saying that tells us “what we eat defines who we are”. Basing on these words, we can absolutely say that the food we eat can greatly affect our lives as well as our health. Food is needed by our body in order to survive. It is where our body gets the energy in order to accomplish all the activities of everyday. However, we must always be wise in choosing the type of food that we want to eat. Some foods contain nutrients that can be essential for the body. Nevertheless, there are also some that can produce harmful substances, such as cholesterol, fat or high salt content, which are considered detrimental substances to health. So if ever we are looking for foods that contain healthy benefits, then we could always rely on the effects of eating edamame. What is edamame and what are the edamame health benefits?

What is Edamame?

Edamame comes from the words “eda”, which means branches, and “mame”, which means beans in Japanese. Edamame is described as a type of Asian food that consists of green soybeans that are boiled or steamed in their pods. These soybeans are harvested before they turn hard and are quickly parboiled and frozen in order to retain the fresh flavor of the beans. After boiling salt is usually added in order to give taste to the dish. Edamame is usually served as a snack and sometimes used in salads. However, this type of vegetable can also be used in soups and other vegetable dishes. Nevertheless, edamame is still packed with many nutritious substances no matter what type of recipe they are used. Below are some of the many health benefits that edamame can offer.

Nutritional Value found in Edamame

Edamame is not just a simple type of vegetable that can be used in any kind of cooking. In fact, edamame is considered as one of the vegetables with the most number of vitamins and nutrients. Aside from being rich in carbohydrates, which is a good source of energy, edamame is also packed with dietary fiber, proteins, vitamins, minerals and omega fatty acids. If edamame is measured, only 155 grams of this food can already contain 16 grams of carbohydrates, 17 grams of protein, 8 grams of fat and 8 grams of dietary fiber. With the same amount of edamame, our body could already receive 9.5 mg of vitamin C, 41,4 mcg of vitamin K, 0.3 mg of thiamine of vitamin B1, 0.2 mg of riboflavin or vitamin B2, 1.4 mg of niacin or vitamin B3, 0.6 mg of pantothenic acid or vitamin B5, 97.6 mg of the mineral calcium, 3.5 mg of iron and 99.2 mg of magnesium. In addition to these mentioned minerals, edamame also contains 676 mg of potassium, 262 mg of phosphorus, 2.1 mg of zinc and 1.6 mg of manganese. If we think that is all, then we are wrong. Edamame also contains 560 mg of omega 3 essential fatty acids and about 2781 mg of omega-6 fatty acids.

Other Health Benefits of Edamame

Having all these wonderful nutritional components, we can already say that edamame can deliver a lot of effective benefits for our health. Because of this, edamame has become a popular snack among athletes with its high protein content. One of the most popular edamame is the dry and roasted type, which is a good snack among vegetarians. So what are the different health benefits of edamame?

• Since edamame contains high protein content, this food can be useful in maintaining muscle mass.
• Just like what is mentioned above, edamame contains a certain percentage of fat. However, these fats are composed of mono and polyunsaturated fatty acids including omega 3 and omega 6 fatty acids, which are all known to be beneficial for the heart. This likewise reduces the risk of experiencing any heart related diseases.
• Edamame contains an essential amount of dietary fiber, which is effective in lowering down the level of cholesterol in the body. This too improves the bowel movement and lesent eh chances of having problems in the cardiovascular system, especially the heart.
• Aside from the fiber content, the presence of isoflavones in edamame can also help in lowering down the cholesterol level.
• Calcium is also significant in maintaining the bones healthy and strong and improve or maintain bone density.
• Because it is also packed with carbohydrates, edamame can easily make us feel full and control hunger, which can prevent overeating and obesity.
• It also contains many antioxidants that are effective in protecting the body against the harmful effects of free radicals.

These are just some of the wonderful health benefits that we could expect in consuming edamame. Edamame may not be as popular as the other types of vegetables, but when it comes to its nutritional content, edamame is definitely on top of the pack. So if we want to eat foods that can provide more advantages compared to the disadvantages, then we can always rely on the wonderful effects of edamame.