A healthy alternative to snack

* A Spanish study reveals the high nutritional value of these legumes



Although there are still a few days of summer, the vast majority of Spanish evaporate see how your vacation. If the 'culture of tapas' is inevitably linked to us, more so in summer time, where to sit for pie in any terrace seems often imprescindble. Olives, nuts or lupins are ideal complements to taste with a beer or soda. And without knowing it, we may be, thanks to snack, food better than we think.

A group of researchers from the Instituto de la Grasa, belonging to the Centro Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC) - and the University of Seville have revealed in a study published in the journal Food Chemistry ', the high nutritional value of wild lupine southern Spain.

The lupine belongs to the family of legumes, like beans or chickpeas. According declares elmundo.es Javier Vioque, research scientist and lead author of the study, this food "is characterized by its high protein and fiber, as well as being an important antioxidant. Their proteins are also "high quality".

Many properties of this plant, since it also helps to balance the amino acids. Not for nothing, as has Vioque, beans have been calling them "the flesh of the poor", because in countries that do not have access to it for continued use, as in India or Mexico, they consume large number of pulses, since their nutritional values can compensate for low intake of meat or fish.

The lupine cultivated species belong to the 'Lupinus albus' although other species growing wild or cultivated in Andalusia marginally. After analyzing six of these types of lupine, the researchers found that the 'Lupinus luteus',' L. hispanicus 'and' L. Cosentinii 'contain proteins with improved nutritional properties and the composition of the latter is the most balanced.

Compared with other foods, the protein intake of lupine is similar to that offered sunflower seeds over the chickpeas. It also highlights the high content of iron and calcium. In contrast, the level of fats and carbohydrates is similar to other crop plants.
Revalue indigenous crops

The study is part of a project of the Andalusian with the aim of tracking wild vegetables that grow in the south of the peninsula. Vioque explained that he had analyzed the protein composition "to upgrade indigenous crops" that in recent years have been displaced (some have even disappeared) by seed marketed by foreign multinationals.

"For the preservation and expansion of local crops, we need to further study its characteristics as a power source," says the scientist, emphasizing that investigations like this, "confirmed the importance of studying populations of wild species for seed that can provide good properties nutrition.

The lupine grown used as feed for livestock, but its grain is edible if you remove the bitterness that characterizes him with water and salt. Thus, it becomes a popular snack, especially in Andalusia. Enjoy your meal, never better.