Mung, Moong or Monggo beans are a leguminous food plant that is native to India but adapted and localized around Asia. It is a popular ingredient in soups and stews while it’s fresh sprouts (known to us as toge) are used in many dishes such as noodles and stir frys as well. Here in the Philippines “Monggo” is a favorite local dish. This soup is mostly stewed monggo beans with some spices added, and is usually topped with a local spinach like Alugbati (Luzon) or Lupo (Visayas).
Aside from it’s well-appreciated culinary virtues, Monggo is also a highly nutrient dense food. Let’s take a look at it’s profile below. ‘
This is a significant amount of nutrition, though note that the amount specified is 207g, as opposed to our usual 100g in our other food profiles. Still, if we estimate the amounts per 100g you still get 63% of your daily Magnesium, 66% of your Potatssium, 150% of your Folates, and significant amount of B vitamins (B1 59%, B2 22%, B6 30%, B5 39%). It also provides 50% of your daily protein requirement. Consuming 100-200g of monggo in a meal is normal, so you are likely to benefit greatly if you include monggo in your diet.
Note that it also includes the nutritional value of sprouted monggo, or Toge. as you can see, most of the nutrients are diluted by moisture, but there is a sudden increase of Vitamin K and C. It provides roughly the same amount of Vitamin K as the popular health food, alfalfa sprouts.
Effects on Immunity
Magnesium and Potassium are important in regulating inflammation. So is Vitamin B5 (Pantothenic Acid). Magnesium is important for production of Macrophages, which are your immune system’s first responders.
Folate is found in high amounts. Folic acid is used by our body in production of all of our cells, including those of our immune system, making it a very essential nutrient.
The other B Vitamins are used in lymphocyte production (B6) and aid in absorption of important Vitamins (B12).
COVID Resistance: Magnesium has been found to have significance in COVID infection as it allows your Macrophages to convert from type 1 to type 2. 1 This changes their function from inflammation creation (needed in initial immune response) to inflammation regulation (needed for prolonged immune response). In light of recent research that pinpoints inflammation as the cause of severe and fatal COVID infection, it is important to get enough Mangesium.
Toge contains a high amount of Vitamin K, another nutrient that has been found to regulate the dangerous inflammation that comes with severe COVID symptoms.
Special Information
An easily grown and propagated plant, Monggo is best grown in the summer as it thrives in full sun and heat. Being a legume it is very beneficial to your soil health to grow this plant as it cultivates nitrogen fixing bacteria in your soil. You can easily grow this in containers if you lack space. You will need to plant about 30 plants for one bowl of soup however!
Monggo and other beans have gotten a bad reputation recently for being high in Uric acid, supposedly making it problematic for those with goiter. It has been shown however that plant based Uric Acid is much less likely to aggravate the condition.
Choose Organic
Monggo is a very easily grown plant, due to it’s nitrogen fixing capacity. Due to that fact, it is not usually grow with chemicals. However they are normally grown as off-season crops on conventional rice farms, meaning there is good likelihood they are exposed to herbicides. Do your best to find organic sources of Monggo when possible.