Hey Kids! Are you feeling the cold?

Why not try a delicious and warming comfort food like baked beans on toast? Beans are packed with lots of healthy nutrients, and provide many benefits such as helping to prevent heart disease. Read all about the wonderful world of beans, and then have a go at the wordsearch.

Beans keep you full for longer. Beans contain fibre, complex carbohydrates and proteins, substances that signal to your body that you are full.

The healthiest beans to eat are chickpeas, lentils, peas, black beans, kidney beans, and soybeans.

Beans make people gassy because our bodies do not have the correct enzyme to process them completely. Which means our intestines ferment them, leading to gas.

Humans have been eating beans for thousands of years, so long that beans might be one of the first cultivated plants.

Many different plants produce beans, but they are all members of the same scientific family. The family includes peas, peanuts, and lentils as well as beans. These plants grow in most parts of the world. Most types grow either as a bush or as a climbing plant.

Beans come in many colours—white, green, yellow, tan, pink, red, brown, purple, and black. They also have different shapes. Some are nearly round or oval. Others are flat or kidney-shaped.

One of the most useful beans is the soybean. Many chemical products, including paint, are made from soybean oil. Soybeans are fed to farm animals. They are also a rich source of protein for people around the world. They are used to make soy milk, soy sauce, and tofu.

In ancient Greece minor officials were elected by putting one white and many black beans in a pot. Whoever picked the white bean got the job.

Baked Beans were originally sold in the UK by Fortnum and Mason in 1901 as a luxury item. A large can would cost 9d (the equivalent to AU $6.30 by today’s prices).

The small white beans used to make canned baked beans are a type of haricot bean called ‘Navy’ beans. The other main ingredient is tomato puree, along with herbs and spices.

They were originally called BAKED beans because the can is first filled with blanched beans, then the sauce, then the can is sealed with a lid, and THEN the cooking begins. The beans are cooked inside the sealed can. Yes that’s right – INSIDE THE CAN – and not before they go into the can.

SPC Baked Beans are made in Shepparton. Next time you are feeling hungry, why not try this locally made meal with toast and butter – yum!