Include The Nutritious Green Grams In Your Winter Diet And Reap These Benefits

Winter brings a plethora of seasonal vegetables — cauliflower, broccoli, green peas, carrot, and beetroot, to green leafy vegetables like spinach and mustard leaves. One such healthy and nutritious superfood is green chickpeas. Often known as green grams or hara chana, these are everyone’s favourite and are cooked in several traditional vegetarian cuisines, including delicious chola bhatura or pulav recipes, vegetable soups and salads. Hara chana is a healthy food to include in your winter diet. Here are some health benefits of consuming green grams during winters:

Nutrients in green gram:

Green gram contains many essential nutrients like vitamins A, C, E and K. The amount of proteins present in it is also very high. They also contain many other minerals including dietary fibre, sodium, magnesium, potassium, selenium, iron, folate, phosphorus, calories, fats, carbohydrates, calcium, fatty acids and amino acids.

Health benefits of eating green gram:

According to BlendOfBytes.com, “Green grams are rich in plant-based proteins. The micronutrient strengthens muscles and keeps bones healthy. If you do not consume non-veg foods like meat and fish, then you can include green gram in the diet to overcome the deficiency of proteins”

Green gram contains folate (folic acid). Folate is also termed vitamin B9, which prevents depression and other mental problems. Due to a lack of folate, a pregnant woman may face problems such as miscarriage, birth defects and improper development of the foetus. Consumption of folate-rich foods during pregnancy can prevent these problems.

As green gram contains fibres, it promotes the growth of healthy bacteria in the stomach and prevents growth of unhealthy bacteria. With its consumption, you can avoid colon cancer and irritable bowel syndrome to a great extent.

Eat green grams regularly for a healthy heart. The superfood is high in magnesium and potassium levels, which plays an important role in controlling high blood pressure and keeping the heart healthy. It also restricts the absorption of cholesterol in the blood, so the level of bad cholesterol does not increase.

Green gram contains plant-based proteins, which is very beneficial for maintaining overall mental and physical health. By including these superfoods in your daily diet, you can build muscles, recuperate dull, dry, saggy skin and combat hair fall, brittle nails. Green gram helps in eliminating many types of skin-related problems.

As green gram is rich in fibre, it keeps your stomach full for a long time. Since fibre is not digested quickly, you will be able to stay away from eating unhealthy snacks. These small seeds also help in managing your weight.

Since it is rich in proteins, eating green grams can reduce hair fall to a great extent. Your hair becomes strong from the roots and its growth increases.