Chickpeas, also known as garbanzo beans, are a legume that provide a delicious and nutritious food. Consumed extensively in the middle East and Asian countries for centuries, they are slowly becoming more widely accepted into the western diet.

Chickpeas are available all year around, as a dried or canned product. Interestingly, there is little difference in the nutritional value between the canned beans and soaking your own.Chickpeas are well known for their fibre content. having about 12gms of fibre per cup, and in particular about 65-75% of the fibre is insoluble fibre, so this means that this fibre remains  mostly undigested until it hits the large bowel, so it is a great brush for your entire digestive tract, especially the large intestine.

You only need about 4 to 6 cups a week to get the health benefits from chick peas. And that isn’t that hard to do, especially if you like to eat foods like hummus. Hummus is a really great snack.

There have been many studies on the health benefits of chickpeas, and in one study they found by consuming 1/3 of a cup of chick peas a day, there was a measurable increased control of  blood sugars and insulin secretion.

Here is a table of the nutrients of significance in chick peas.

Nutrients in 1 cup of Chickpeas (dependent on soil quality where grown):

• Calories = 265
• Copper = 0.50 mg
• Fibre = 12.50 g
• Folate = 280.00 mcg
• Iron = 4.80 mg
• Manganese = 1.60 mcg
• Molybdenum = 120.00 mcg
• Protein = 14.50 g
• Phosphorous = 275.50 mg
• Tryptophan = 0.15 g