Besides tasting great and warming you up on a cold day, almost every ingredient in a chili recipe has health benefits.

Here is my family’s favorite chili recipe. 

• 1 lb lean ground beef, browned and drained
• 2 cans kidney beans rinsed and drained
• 2 cans tomatoes
• 1 medium to large onion chopped
• 1 green pepper chopped
• 2 cloves garlic crushed
• 2-3 tablespoons chili powder
• 1 teaspoon pepper
• 1 teaspoon cumin
• salt to taste

My favorite way to cook chili is in the crock pot and often I do soups overnight because I cook the ground beef, onions and garlic and then throw everything in the crock pot while I am cooking another dinner. That way I cook two meals at once. When I get up in the morning I turn it off, let it cool and before I go out the door put it in the fridge. All that’s left is to heat it up for supper in the evening!

The health benefits of chili for diabetes are numerous.

Kidney beans are one of the best food sources of fiber providing almost half our daily requirement. Even though the beans are carbohydrate the fiber slows down the blood sugar rise after the meal. Kidney beans also have 57% of our daily need for folate, which lowers homocysteine levels and 20% of our need for magnesium, a natural blood pressure medicine.

Chili powder, ground from red chili peppers, contains capsaicin, which fights inflammation, reduces insulin needs and helps lower blood sugars.

If you go easy on the salt and choose lean ground beef, every other ingredient in chili will help you fight diabetes in one way or another.  If you are watching your weight, 1 small to medium bowl of chili will provide about 500 calories. My problem is that I love bread with my chili, which puts me well over my weight control portion.

The great thing about making chili and other soups is that you can add and subtract ingredients to your liking and create your own favorite recipe. If you have a favorite chili recipe please share!