Health Risks and Benefits of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) Consumption

Abstract

Chickpeas (CPs) are one of the most commonly consumed legumes, especially in the Mediterranean area as well as in the Western world. Being one of the most nutritional elements of the human diet, CP toxicity and allergy have raised health concerns. CPs may contain various antinutritional compounds, including protease inhibitors, phytic acid, lectins, oligosaccharides, and some phenolic compounds that may impair the utilization of the nutrients by people. Also, high consumption rates of CPs have enhanced the allergic problems in sensitive individuals as they contain many allergens. On the other hand, beneficial health aspects of CP consumption have received attention from researchers recently. Phytic acid, lectins, sterols, saponins, dietary fibers, resistant starch, oligosaccharides, unsaturated fatty acids, amylase inhibitors, and certain bioactive compounds such as carotenoids and isoflavones have shown the capability of lowering the clinical complications associated with various human diseases. The aim of this paper is to unravel the health risks as well as health-promoting aspects of CP consumption and to try to fill the gaps that currently exist. The present review also focuses on various prevention strategies to avoid health risks of CP consumption using simple but promising ways.

Enzymatic Production, Bioactivity, and Bitterness of Chickpea (Cicer arietinum) Peptides

“…Pulse consumption has been associated with positive health outcomes across multiple populations (Viguiliouk, Blanco Mejia, Kendall, & Sievenpiper, ). Consumption of chickpeas, which are commonly available pulses worldwide, has been proposed to be beneficial in the managing of multiple chronic diseases such as cardiovascular diseases and obesity (Gupta et al., ; Padhi & Ramdath, ). Although the exact mechanisms of how compounds present in chickpea, also known as garbanzo, can help alleviate symptoms associated with various chronic illnesses are still relatively unknown, bioactive peptides produced from chickpea proteins could play a role (Roy, Boye, & Simpson, ; Sánchez‐Chino et al., ).…”

Quality of a Chickpea‐Based High Protein Snack

“…Therefore, there is market potential for development of new chickpea-based products. In the United States, increased interest in chickpea utilization could be due to chickpeas (1) being an excellent source of proteins, carbohydrates, fiber, and minerals (Arab, Helmy, & Bareh, 2010;Rachwa-Rosiak, Nebesny, & Budryn, 2015), (2) low in lipid content, (3) reported ability to offset many chronic diseases, such as cardiovascular, type-2 diabetes, some cancers, and weight control (Gupta et al, 2016;Wallace, Murray, & Zelman, 2016), (4) promotion of legume consumption by the 2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans (HHS, & USDA, 2015), (5) increase in vegetarianism and plant-based foods in Western countries (Gupta, Chabbra, Bakshi, Liu, & Sathe, 2018;Joshi, Liu, & Sathe, 2015;Lea, Crawford, & Worsley, 2006;Tuso, Ismail, Ha, & Bartolotto, 2013), (6) greater demand for nondairy proteins (Mäkinen, Wanhalinna, Zannini, & Arendt, 2016), and (7) a combination thereof. Although there is an increased consumer interest, chickpeas remain underutilized in the United States.…”

Comparative analysis of techno‐functional properties, starch digestion and protein quality of pigmented chickpea flours

“…In recent years, chickpea consumption has gained importance due to its bioactive compounds which are known to benefit human health (Jukanti et al ., ; Gupta et al ., ). Likewise, there is an increasing interest in seeds owing pigmented seed coats such as soybeans (Cho et al ., ) or maize (Mora‐Rochin et al ., ) because they contain relevant phytochemicals that exert high antioxidant capacity.…”