Beans beans the musical fruit, delicious to eat, and healthy to boot.
Zinc for skin health, Four-Bean Cassoulet, and how to calculate the Nutrivore Score of your own recipes
👉This week, we’re talking about: how zinc improves skin health; black beans as a good source of zinc and many other nutrients; how to calculate the Nutrivore Score of your own recipes or meal plan; the adaptation period to a sudden increase in fiber and how to minimize the farty effects of beans; and I’m sharing my Four-Bean Cassoulet recipe.1
Key Takeaways
✅Zinc improves skin health both internally (meaning eating zinc-rich foods) and externally (meaning topical products).
✅Black beans are a good source of zinc and feature in my Four-Bean Cassoulet recipe!
✅If beans make you toot, that’s normal! And, I have easy tips to minimize their gaseous effects below!
✅For paid subscribers, your downloads this week are: Zinc Fun Factsheet and Four-Bean Cassoulet recipe
Zinc for Skin Health
🧬Zinc is an essential trace mineral that serves as a cofactor for over 300 enzymes and 1000 transcription factors, giving it important roles in immune function, sensory organ function, reproduction, gene regulation, DNA synthesis, wound healing, and the metabolism and activity of multiple other nutrients. Zinc has also been studied to help many different diseases and conditions such as eye-health, genetic disorders, cardiovascular disease, neurodegenerative disease, mental health, fatigue, and skin conditions.
A 2013 systematic review concluded that both oral and topical zinc can have a beneficial effect on acne, including exerting antibacterial and anti-inflammatory effects. Another 2020 systematic review and meta-analysis found that acne patients have significantly lower serum levels of zinc compared to controls, and that zinc supplementation can significantly improve mean inflammatory papule count (the number of inflamed acne lesions) as well as the severity and type of acne lesions. Additional research has shown that zinc deficiency or insufficiency could exacerbate atopic dermatitis (also known as eczema). In fact, one randomized controlled trial found that among eczema patients with zinc deficiency, oral zinc supplementation led to improvements in the extent and severity of the condition; however, another randomized controlled trial found no effect. So, while more research is needed, there is some promising evidence to suggest exciting potential for people with chronic skin conditions!
Want to know the top 25 best food sources of this nutrient? Learn them here.
Get 13% DV Zinc with Black Beans
Black beans are very common throughout many different cultures and cuisines, and are known for their meaty texture and tough outer shell. Legumes were even a staple food for numerous ancient cultures, and every major civilization has included a legume as part of their food system. Over time, legumes maintained their status, and have become the centerpiece of a number of iconic national dishes through the Middle East, India, Brazil, Greece, Egypt and many more!
The health benefits associated with legumes come from a number of factors working together, including the high amount of polyphenols, dietary fiber, and other minerals and vitamins. A large 2017 meta-analysis showed that all-cause mortality (a general indicator of health and longevity) decreased by 16% with increasing intake of legumes up to 150 grams (3 servings) per day. And, in a 2021 study, eating 3+ servings of legumes per week reduces all-cause mortality by 17% compared to 2 servings per month. In animal models, black beans have even demonstrated potential anti-cancer properties for colon tumor growth. Black beans are also known to improve gut microbiome composition and metabolic activity.
A 1/2-cup serving of black beans gives you 8.4 grams of protein, 6.0 grams of fiber, 43% DV vitamin B9 (folate), 36% DV copper, 29% DV vitamin B1 (thiamin), 18% DV manganese, 16% DV magnesium, 13% DV vitamin B7 (biotin), 13% DV zinc, 12% DV potassium, 11% DV iron, and 2200 mg polyphenols.
Black beans is the 262nd most nutrient-dense food! Learn the Top 500 Nutrivore Foods here.
Four-Bean Cassoulet
🥗 If you are looking for a one-stop-shop meal packed with tender meat, hearty beans, stewed vegetables and comforting warm seasonings, look no further than this amazing (and nutrient-dense) Four-Bean Cassoulet.
Not only do the four types of beans offer amazing fiber, minerals and vitamins, but the phytonutrients from the vegetables and boost of the protein in the tender meats fill your mouths and belly with a satiating, and down-right-delicious meal!
Add this recipe to your meal plan this week with Real Plans, the official Nutrivore meal planning app!
Nutrivore Mindset Corner
🧠This year, I started a new style of video for social media where I do a nutritional analysis, including calculating the Nutrivore Score, of trending recipes (watch on YouTube, TikTok, Instagram, or Facebook). It’s a fun way to teach about nutrients while highlighting the nutritional value of delicious, comforting recipes that many people might assume aren’t healthy because of wrong messages learned from diet culture. These videos have been very popular, which is awesome (and a special hello to everyone who subscribed to my Substack because you’ve been enjoying these videos!), and there have been some thematic questions in the comments that I have been working to address in these newsletters. Up this week: How Can I Calculate the Nutrivore Score of my own recipes?
Since I don’t have time to calculate the Nutrivore Score of all of the recipes and daily meal plans left in my comment sections, I thought I would share how to calculate the Nutrivore Score of a recipe, meal, or day of eating.
The math is simple, if annoyingly laborious:
For each ingredient in a recipe, multiply how many calories worth of that ingredient is going into the recipe by the ingredient’s Nutrivore Score (the free searchable database is here)
add up the result of that multiplication for every ingredient (the number will be absurdly large)
divide that sum by the total number of calories in the recipe.
Any food or meal with a Nutrivore Score over about 150 is contributing more nutrients than calories to your overall diet. If you want to calculate the Nutrivore Score of your entire meal plan, follow this procedure for every food you eat. I don’t have an exact number for you, but I think that aiming for a daily Nutrivore Score in the 250-300 range increases the likelihood of fully meeting your nutritional needs (especially if you’re also eating a wide variety of foods).
Now, if you’re not interested in calculating the Nutrivore Score of your meals by hand, I get it! I used to always have to calculate recipe Nutrivore Scores by hand, and it’s cumbersome! That’s why nowadays I use Real Plans, which does this math for me!
Real Plans is an amazing meal planning app that has tons of functionality and is fully customizable, and I’ve partnered with Real Plans to fully integrate Nutrivore into the app. Your subscription comes with a library of over 3000 recipes (including all of my recipes for no additional charge), and every single recipe is labeled with its Nutrivore Score. Even cooler, when you import your own recipes (favorites from the web, your go-to cookbooks, or your grandma’s family secret recipes—they only show up in your account), Real Plans calculates its Nutrivore Score, too. You also get a complete nutrition breakdown of every recipe, including the ones you import!
So now you can calculate the Nutrivore Score of your favorite meals, either by hand, or let Real Plans do it for you!
Learn everything you need to know about the Nutrivore philosophy in my book, Nutrivore: Eat Any Food, Get Every Nutrient, and Transform Your Health!
Helpful Tip of the Week
💡Since I shared a beans recipe this week, and hinted to a certain limerick in my post title, I thought it might be helpful to answer the question: What if beans make me fart?
Our gut bacteria produce gas when they ferment fiber, so farting is actually a normal and healthy sign that your gut microbiome is doing its job. When you suddenly increase your fiber intake, you’re giving those bacteria a lot more food, which can temporarily lead to more gas, bloating, and yes—more farting. But if you keep eating that higher-fiber diet, your gut microbiome adapts and gas production usually settles back down. A 2022 review shows this adaptation period varies depending on how much fiber is added, the type of fiber, and the individual—but for example, one clinical trial that added a whopping 42 grams of fiber per day found that the number of daily farts doubled initially but returned to baseline after about 3 to 4 weeks.
In addition to eating beans regularly so your gut microbiome can adapt, there are some other easy things you can do to reduce the gaseous effects of beans. Rinse canned beans thoroughly under running water to wash away some of the gas-producing compounds, and if you’re using dried beans, soak them for 8 to 12 hours (or use a quick-soak method), then discard the soaking water before cooking in fresh water. Make sure beans are cooked until fully soft, since undercooked beans are harder to digest. If needed, you can also use an enzyme supplement containing alpha-galactosidase to help break down the specific carbohydrates responsible for gas before they reach your colon.
This Week’s Downloads
📥For paid subscribers, your downloads this week are:
Zinc Fun Factsheet - This 2-page PDF guide summarizes all the most important information about what zinc does, top food sources, and how much we need for each demographic group.
Four-Bean Cassoulet - A beautifully-designed PDF version of this week’s recipe that you can save or print out, to build your own personalized Nutrivore Cookbook week by week.
You can find buttons to download at the bottom of this Substack. Thank you so much for supporting my work and Nutrivore!
Sincerely,
Dr. Sarah Ballantyne, PhD
Founder of Nutrivore
Medical Disclaimer: The information provided in this Substack is for educational purposes only and is not intended as a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition or dietary changes.
FTC Disclosure: Some links in this Substack may be affiliate links, meaning I may earn a small commission if you purchase through them at no additional cost to you. I only recommend products I genuinely believe in. Thank you for supporting my work!
For Paid Subscribers
