Protect Your Gut with a Bowlful of These

You might safeguard your gastrointestinal (GI) tract from cancer if you slow-cook this savory recipe next weekend: Squash, Chickpea, and Red Lentil Stew.

This hearty and satisfying fall favorite is packed with two kinds of legumes, and that's good news for your gut. Seems beans and legumes help protect parts of your digestive pipes from cancer. Plug in the Crock-Pot!

Cancer-Thwarting Legumes
Several studies have found that beans and legumes may help keep GI tract cancer at bay, but one study in particular found that just two small bowls of beans a week may be enough to diminish cancer risk. The researchers suspect the soluble fiber in legumes may help produce certain short-chain fatty acids thought to halt the growth of cancer cells and help kill them off. Add to that the boatload of calcium, vitamins, isoflavones, and folate in legumes – all of which possibly play their own cancer-fighting role – and you've got a super-nutritious, gut-protecting protein source. (Related: Enjoy two folate-rich green foods that may help prevent cancer in another part of your gut: the colon.)

Other Reasons to Love Legumes
But that's not all. Legumes do more than protect you from gastrointestinal cancer. They also:

• Dial down high blood sugar. Learn how the fiber in beans helps stabilize blood sugar.
• Tame an out-of-control appetite. Here's why black beans -- and 8 other tasty eats -- can bust your appetite and banish belly fat.
• Snap you out of a bad mood. Learn what vitamin in lentils can rev up feel-happy brain chemicals.

Still not sold on the benefits of beans? Here are 4 reasons YOU Docs Mehmet Oz, MD, and Michael Roizen, MD, love 'em.