Mung Beans for Dogs

Healthy Legumes

Mung Beans are legumes that are commonly part of Indian, Chinese, and Southeast Asian cuisine.^1,2 These small, green beans can be sold fresh, dried, or as bean sprouts. You can find them in grocery stores and health food stores. You can use mung beans for dogs in a healthy and balanced dog cancer diet.

Benefits of Mung Beans for Dogs

Mung beans and other legumes are a great source of protein, dietary fiber, vitamins, and minerals. They also contain useful bioactive compounds such as polyphenols, polysaccharides, and peptides.³

Two types of polyphenols, phenolic acids and flavonoids, have antioxidant properties.⁴ Polysaccharides in mung beans also have antioxidant effects. In addition, there is evidence that polysaccharides prepared from mung bean extract can help regulate immune system activity. The peptides found in mung beans have also been studied for their antioxidant and anti-cancer effects.^9,11,12

In addition to the anti-cancer and antioxidant properties of mung beans, studies have found they have a number of other health benefits. They can:^13,16,17,18

• Help decrease blood sugar and lipids in the body
• Help decrease blood pressure
• Combat inflammation
• Help with pain control
• Protect the liver

As you can imagine, all of these properties can be helpful for our dogs with cancer!

When to Not Give Mung Beans to Dogs

There are no known food-drug interactions for mung beans at this time. As long as they are cooked properly, they should be perfectly safe for most dogs to eat.

How to Prepare Mung Beans

Mung beans are commonly sold as whole dried beans and as raw mung bean sprouts. They can also be found as sprouted mung beans.

Dried mung beans can be soaked and boiled.

Sprouts in any form should always be cooked. Do not feed pets raw mung bean sprouts, raw sprouted mung beans, or any raw vegetable sprouts as there is a risk of bacterial contamination. Wash sprouted mung beans or bean sprouts thoroughly and cook before using.^19,20

When feeding mung beans as part of a complete and balanced homemade diet, consult with the veterinarian who is formulating the diet for amounts to integrate into your recipe.

If you are adding mung beans as a supplement, do not exceed more than 10% of the kilocalories fed per day to your dog. According to the USDA website, 1 tablespoon of mung beans is around 45 kilocalories. If you are unsure how many kilocalories your dog is eating each day, please contact your veterinarian to assist you in the calculation. They will need to know what brand and formula food your dog is currently eating, as well as how much.

Choosing Mung Beans

If available, organically grown mung beans are preferred as there will be less chemical residue. Additionally, organic agriculture techniques are also designed to be more environmentally sustainable. That said, organic and conventional products should have equal nutritional value and benefits.²¹