Meet our Featured Dietitian Anne Danahy!

Anne Danahy is a registered dietitian and nutrition communications consultant from Scottsdale, Arizona, who specializes in women’s health and healthy aging. She blogs at Craving Something Healthy, where she shares (mostly) healthy recipes, nutrition tips and information to help her readers stay healthy and age well.

Part of healthy eating, she says, includes adding beans to your diet — she calls them the “ultimate anti-aging food.” Anne encourages people to add more dried beans into their diet because beans are an often-overlooked food with so many wonderful health benefits.

She says that beans have so many nutritional benefits that it’s hard to know where to begin, but she relies on beans for soluble fiber to manage blood sugar and cholesterol and promote weight loss. She loves how versatile they are — they’re the best way to boost protein, fiber, and lots of other nutrients in both savory and sweet dishes. They’re an easy way to enjoy more plant-based meals, too.

Anne often cooks Mexican or Southwestern recipes, so she always has lots of black beans on hand. She says her real favorite, though, are cannellini beans because of their milder taste and creamy texture. They’re a perfect way to add a rich creaminess to soups and stews. She has also used them in baking and to make sweet dips, such as her Loaded Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Hummus, with a healthy twist.

Check out Anne’s recipe for Roasted Radish and White Bean Salad.