If you have been thinking about some other forms of protein now that the cost of meat is rising, consider the legumes, a category of vegetable that includes beans, peas, peanuts, soybeans, and lentils.

Legumes may be small but they are packed with nutrition. Health benefits include their high-quality and low-fat protein, their cholesterol-lowering soluble fiber, and their nutrients, such as iron, folate, and other B vitamins. Legumes are also classified as a low-glycemic-index food, meaning that they won't spike your blood glucose levels. Eating lots of legumes has been linked to decreases in one's risks of type 2 diabetes, heart disease, and certain types of cancer.

In the Food Guide Pyramid, legumes are included within the meats and beans group, even though they are a starchy food and contain carbohydrates. One serving of legumes is considered to be a quarter cup of cooked dry beans or peas and is equivalent to 1 ounce of meat. USDA recommendations call for only 5 to 6 ounces from the meats and beans group per day, although needs will vary depending on age, gender and physical activity level. Knowing about these amounts, you can see how we Americans consume too much meat and protein.

So what can you do to add some legumes to your daily diet? First, put them on your grocery list for your next trip to the store. Look for legumes like black, fava, navy, pinto, kidney, or garbanzo beans; lentils; and soybeans. These come dry, canned, frozen or fresh, so look in different sections of the supermarket. These tips will help you add them to your diet.

• Add beans to salads, soups, stews, or casseroles. Even if a recipe doesn't call for beans, you can often add them anyway.
• Mix beans or lentils with pasta or rice and skip the meat at that meal.
• For a sauce, a spread, or a dip, puree legumes and then add spices and garlic — think hummus.
• Snack on edamame (fresh soybeans) or soynuts instead of crackers and chips.
• Use legumes as a main course; just add spices and vegetables.

Think about your diet and how you can make small changes for a big impact on your health. What are some of your favorite ways to use legumes?

Don't try to cut calories from your day by skipping breakfast. Recent research from a study conducted in both Venezuela and the U.S. indicates (once again) that breakfast is an important meal.

This study, which included 94 obese women, showed that a big breakfast (610 calories) that included plenty of carbs and protein, when followed by a smaller lunch and an even smaller dinner, resulted in significant weight loss over several months, when compared to a lower-carb diet.

We've known for some time that people who eat breakfast often weigh less than people who skip it. One reason for this is that people who skip breakfast are actually making themselves extra hungry and so are probably going to eat more calories throughout the day. Breakfast can help to control hunger and give you lots of nutrients and energy to start your day.

Another reason behind the weight loss-breakfast connection is that breakfast jump-starts your metabolism. Think of your metabolism as a fire. Overnight, the fire dies back; breakfast is like the wood that gets the flames crackling again. If you don't start up your metabolism early in the day, you won't be burning all the calories that you could be.

While you needn't eat a 600-calorie breakfast every day, you should take away the message that it may still be the day's most important meal. Here are some tips on eating a healthy breakfast

• It should control cravings and keep you feeling fuller longer.
• Include some carbohydrates, protein, and healthy fats.
• If you eat a high-calorie breakfast, then keep your other meals lower in calories.
• Always try to serve breakfast to your kids — they'll concentrate better at school, have a healthier body weight, and get more needed vitamins and minerals.

Diabetes is still on the rise. New numbers confirm that from 2005 to 2007 the total prevalence of diabetes in the U.S. increased by 13.5 percent.

This means that now 8 percent of the total population has diabetes (23.6 million children and adults). In 2007, 1.6 million new cases of diabetes were diagnosed in people aged 20 and older.

Amidst the bad news of these surging numbers, there's good news about prevention from researchers at Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine in New Orleans. They found that green leafy vegetables may reduce the risk of type 2 diabetes in women.

For every additional serving of green leafy vegetables a woman eats per day, there was a 9 percent reduction in risk. (Men, feel free to go ahead and up your intake of veggies and fruits, too, even if this study wasn't about you.)

This isn't the first study to show a relationship between a reduction in type 2 diabetes and the eating of more vegetables. Reasons for this reduction in risk may be that vegetables are low in calories and fat and high in antioxidants, fiber, and a variety of vitamins and minerals — all things definitely not associated with an increased risk of diabetes.

The take-home message here should be simply to include vegetables every day in your meals, and then some. Think about planning your meals around what vegetable you are having (in season, I hope) and then adding other foods. When you sit down to eat, vegetables should be covering half your plate.

Whether those vegetables are fresh, frozen, or canned, they are an important part of your diet and may reduce your risk of type 2 diabetes.