To keep the ball rolling, and in the attempt to, at least partly, address most – if not all – of the questions proposed in the forum, here are three articles originating from around the world about pulse production and consumption patterns and their health benefits.
1 – “Factors influencing pulse consumption in Latin America”, written by Pascal Leterme from the National University of Colombia and L. Carmenza Muñoz from the International Center for Tropical Research, both based in Colombia, deconstructs consumption patterns in one of the highest consuming regions in the world. Higher and lower consumption can be due to a multitude of reasons, among them their high nutrition factor, their cultural importance in the region, their prevalence in rural areas and in lower income populations, etc. The authors then suggest how patterns may vary depending on urbanization and economic development and stress pulses’ health benefits as a reason to encourage increased consumption.
This article is available at http://journals.cambridge.org/download.php?file=%2FBJN%2FBJN88_S3%2FS0007114502002532a.pdf&code=77edf1706aa915ece6bbfbf916a408e1
2- “Pulses Production in India: Present Status, Bottleneck and Way Forward” by Anil Kumar Singh, SS Singh, Ved Prakash, Santosh Kumar and SK Dwivedi from the Indian Council of Agricultural Research. The Indian population is largely vegetarian and India is the largest importer of pulses in the world. In this article Singh et al. comment on the need to encourage increased pulse production in India, not only to meet demand but also for its potential benefits on crop rotation, intercropping, among others, including in changing climates.
This article is available at http://www.indiaenvironmentportal.org.in/files/file/pulses%20production.pdf
3- “Pulses: The perfect food” developed for the Northern Pulses Growers Association in the United States by Julie Garden-Robinson, Ph.D from North Dakota State University. Finally, this more light hearted publication stresses the nutritional and health benefits of pulse consumption and makes several suggestions on how to prepare them and incorporate them in your diet. The publication is then complemented with an assortment of pulse-based recipes
This article is available at https://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/yf/foods/fn1508.pdf
Cheers,
Roberto
Roberto Neiva Tavares