Lentils are affordable and a good source of nutrition but not many people in Saskatchewan are eating them.
A University of Saskatchewan professor says the province is the number one producer of the pulse crop in Canada but most of this produce is exported to Asia and Africa.
Gordon Zello recently surveyed about 400 people from different areas of Saskatoon finding that the majority eat lentils less than a few times a month.
Zello, the head of the College of Pharmacy and Nutrition, says he was somewhat surprised to find that regardless of social, educational or economic status – not many are consuming lentils.
He adds there are a number of reasons why people may shy away from lentils when cooking a meal.
“But there’s barriers to people actually choosing to cook them or eat them,” he says. “Whether it’s, ‘I don’t like the taste,’ or ‘When I eat them they taste bland,’ or they believe that they take too long to cook…”
Zello was one of the presenters at a global food and nutrition security conference at the university on Thursday.