Mung beans, also called moong or green gram, grow wild in India, and farmers there have grown them for more than 4,000 years. One bean becomes four very different foods: whole green beans, split dal, sprouts and, from its starch, glass noodles. A cup of cooked beans (202 g) has 15.4 g of fiber and 80% of the daily value for folate, and only 8 of 130 foods on this site have more folate gram for gram.
The protein is the surprise. A cup has 14.2 g, but in an isotope-tracer trial in adults only 63.2% of the amino acids in whole mung beans were digested, and 70.9% after the hulls were removed. Moong dal is made from hulled, split beans, though no trial tested dal itself. Counted by amino acids alone, mung bean protein scores 83 out of 100, limited by methionine and cysteine.
Mung bean sprouts are a different product with their own food safety rules, covered below. Mung bean noodles scored a glycemic index of 28 in a small trial, against 82 for brown rice. Human trials of mung beans are few, and much of the research is in mice, pigs or cells, and every study card says which.
Health benefits of mung beans
The top findings from 19 studies, strongest evidence first
What the stars mean
- Strong. Several randomized trials, pooled in a meta-analysis, point the same way, or regulators (FDA or EFSA) have approved the claim.
- Moderate. Good randomized trials support it, but there are fewer of them, or their results vary.
- Limited. Small, short or single trials, or mixed results. Promising, but it needs confirmation.
Population and lab studies get no stars: they show a link or a mechanism, not proof.
How we rate evidence →- ★Gentler blood sugar rise than breadBoiled mung beans scored about 44 on the glycemic index (how fast a food raises blood sugar), well below bread. In another study they scored 57, lower than rice flour roti (69) and boiled breadfruit (64).
- ★Only part of the protein is digestedHealthy adults digested 63.2% of the amino acids in whole mung beans, and 70.9% once the beans were dehulled. Children under 2 digested 65.2% of mung bean protein.
- ★Better blood vessel widening with a protein drinkIn adults aged 45 to 60, a mung bean protein drink for six weeks improved flow-mediated dilation (how well blood vessels widen) compared with placebo. It was a drink, not whole beans.
- ★Less gas than wheat noodles in IBSIn 20 people with irritable bowel syndrome, a mung bean noodle meal produced about as much gas as rice and less than wheat noodles. These were noodles, not whole beans.
- Population studyLinked to lower stomach cancer risk in KoreaIn a Korean study of 213 people with stomach cancer and 213 matched controls, eating mung bean pancake often went with lower risk. It could not separate the beans from frying, other foods or salt.
All 19 studies, strongest evidence first
Adults digested only 63.2% of the amino acids in whole mung beans, and 70.9% once the beans were dehulled
Isotope-tracer study in healthy Indian adults, who ate mung beans, chickpeas and yellow peas grown with labeled water so the protein could be followed through the gut. Chickpea protein was digested 74.6% and yellow pea 71.6%. The authors call these values lower than expected and say dehulling raises digestibility by about 8%. It was a small physiology study, not a health trial.
Boiled mung beans gave a glycemic index of about 44, higher than chickpeas (14) but still well below bread
Healthy volunteers in the Philippines ate five cooked legumes and had their blood sugar tracked. Mung bean scored 44.38, chickpea 13.87, black bean 27.91 and pigeon pea 30.99, and every legume raised blood sugar less than bread. The abstract does not give the number of volunteers, and the study is from 1995.
Boiled mung beans had a glycemic index of 57, lower than rice flour roti (69) and boiled breadfruit (64)
Sri Lankan study that ranked carbohydrate-rich foods against white bread. Boiled cowpeas scored 49 and chickpeas 29. Foods with more fiber and protein had lower glycemic index values. The abstract does not state how many people took part, so this is a rough guide only.
A mung bean noodle meal produced about as much gas as rice and less than wheat noodles in people with irritable bowel syndrome
Randomized crossover study of 20 people with non-constipation irritable bowel syndrome, who ate rice, wheat or mung bean noodle meals and gave breath samples for 8 hours. Hydrogen and methane were significantly higher after wheat than after rice or mung bean. Bloating after wheat was higher than after rice but not significantly higher than after mung bean. These were noodles, not whole beans.
A pancake made from whole green gram flour had a glycemic index of 36, the lowest of four legume snacks
Study in 15 healthy women aged 18 to 23, who ate a savory pancake called cheela made from whole green gram (mung bean) or chickpea flour, with and without fermenting the batter. Glycemic index ranged from 36% to 45%, and fermenting made no significant difference. It is a small study from 1994.
Mung bean protein had the lowest digestibility (65.2%) of four common foods fed to children under 2
Indian children under 2 years ate rice, finger millet, mung bean or egg labeled with isotopes. True ileal amino acid digestibility was 65.2% for mung bean, 68.4% for finger millet, 78.5% for rice and 87.4% for egg. In survey data, lower protein scores of complementary foods went with more stunting (r = -0.66), a link and not proof.
Infants aged 10 to 12 months digested 83.6% of mung bean protein, but its protein quality score was only 50%
Cross-sectional study of 6 healthy infants fed isotope-labeled mung bean protein. Digestibility varied widely (83.6 ± 23.0%) and was higher than the 63.2% found earlier in adults, so the authors say it needs confirming. They suggest a legume-to-cereal ratio of 1:2 in plant-based infant foods to meet protein needs.
Children with gut damage from environmental enteric dysfunction absorbed amino acids from mung bean protein as well as children without it
Study of Indian children aged 18 to 24 months from urban slums, 24 with environmental enteric dysfunction and 17 without. Systemic availability of amino acids from mung bean and spirulina protein did not differ between the groups, and mung bean digestibility did not either. It found no difference, and it did not test growth outcomes of eating mung beans.
A mung bean protein drink taken for six weeks improved blood vessel dilation in middle-aged adults
Randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial in adults aged 45 to 60, who drank a placebo or a mung bean drink with 10 or 15 g of protein a day. The authors report better flow-mediated dilation, more antioxidant enzyme activity and lower inflammatory markers, but the abstract gives no effect sizes. It was a protein drink, not whole beans.
Biscuits with chickpea and mung bean flour lowered fasting blood glucose by 11.45% in people with newly diagnosed diabetes
Biscuits made with 12.5% chickpea and mung bean flour had a glycemic index of 69.17, 13% below control biscuits. In a four-week trial in people with diabetes who ate them as a snack, random blood glucose fell 19.15%. Chickpea and mung bean were combined, and the abstract does not give the number of participants or say how the comparison group was handled.
Mung bean noodles had the lowest glycemic index (28) of five Chinese starchy foods, against 82 for brown rice
Ten healthy people aged 20 to 30 ate 50 g of available carbohydrate from each food. Taro scored 69, adlay 55 and yam 52, and the insulin index of mung bean noodles was 38. Noodles are a processed form of the bean and the study was small.
Mung bean starch gave a glycemic index of 51, against 95 for cornstarch
Study in healthy men comparing glucose, cornstarch and mung bean starch. After mung bean starch, only 35.6% of the load appeared as glucose in the blood 4.5 hours later, against 72.6% for cornstarch. It tested the isolated starch from the bean, not cooked beans, and used a clamp technique in 8 men.
In Korea, people who often ate mung bean pancake had a lower risk of stomach cancer
Case-control study of 213 people with stomach cancer and 213 matched controls, asked about their diet. High intake of stews, broiled fish and salty food raised the risk, while mung bean pancake, tofu, cabbage, spinach and sesame oil lowered it. The study cannot separate the beans from frying, other foods or salt intake.
Adding 30% whole mung bean flour to a high-fat diet reduced weight gain and fat build-up in mice
Study of 32 male mice fed a normal diet, a high-fat diet or a high-fat diet with whole or decorticated mung bean flour for 12 weeks. Both versions improved blood fats, but only whole mung bean cut weight gain and improved insulin resistance. It also shifted gut bacteria, including Akkermansia. Mice are not people.
Whole mung bean lowered fasting blood glucose and insulin in prediabetic mice, while hulled beans did not
Mice made prediabetic with a high-fat diet and streptozotocin ate whole or decorticated mung bean. Both improved glucose tolerance, but only the whole bean lowered fasting glucose, insulin and blood fats. The authors conclude that removing the hull costs some of the benefit but not all of it.
In pigs, cooked mung bean protein scored 86 on the digestible amino acid scale, second only to kidney bean
Growing pigs with a cannula at the end of the small intestine ate diets in which one cooked pulse was the only protein. The score for older children, adolescents and adults was 88 for kidney bean, 86 for mung bean and 76 for chickpeas. Pigs are a model for human digestion, and the human isotope studies above found lower digestibility.
Mung bean protein isolate cut high-fat diet weight gain in mice, but only when gut bacteria were present
Mice ate a high-fat diet with mung bean protein isolate in place of dairy protein. They gained less weight and fat, made more of the gut hormone GLP-1, and had a changed bile acid pool. These effects disappeared in germ-free mice. It tested an isolate, not whole beans.
Mung bean soup eased heat stress damage in mice, and soup that had turned red lost 18% of its phenolics
Mice kept at 40 °C for 2 hours a day for 7 days drank normal or reddened mung bean soup. Reddening cut total phenolics by 18.28% and flavonoids by 16.77% and lost vitexin and isovitexin. Both soups lowered oxidative stress and inflammation, but normal soup protected more. The soup is a folk summer drink, and this was a mouse study.
A 1:1.5 mix of two mung bean seed coat compounds, vitexin and isovitexin, worked best together in cell tests
Purified vitexin and isovitexin from the seed coat were tested in lab enzyme assays, in insulin-resistant HepG2 liver cells and in a gut model using microbiota from overweight people. The 1:1.5 ratio was the most effective against sugar-digesting enzymes and for glucose uptake. It used isolated compounds, not the food, and no person ate anything.
Who should be careful with mung beans
Most people can eat mung beans freely. Take a little care if one of these applies:
- Raw mung bean sprouts. The FDA advises avoiding raw sprouts of any kind, mung bean included, and the CDC names children, older adults, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems. A 2011 outbreak of Salmonella Newport tied to mung bean sprouts in Germany caused 106 cases. Cooking sprouts thoroughly kills the bacteria. Dry and cooked beans are a separate matter.
- Irritable bowel syndrome or a gassy gut. Monash University says legumes are high in GOS, a fermentable carbohydrate, and that legumes boiled and drained tend to be lower, and it suggests ¼ cup (53 g) of cooked, drained mung beans over salads. The trial of mung bean noodles in 20 people with IBS was reassuring, but noodles are not whole beans.
- Birch pollen, soy, peanut or lupin allergy. EFSA says mung bean protein can trigger reactions in people allergic to soybean, peanuts, lupin or birch pollen. In a study of 19 people who reacted to mung bean sprouts, 79% had IgE antibodies to a mung bean allergen related to the main birch pollen allergen.
How to choose, store and eat mung beans
- Whole green beans: the form most studied, with boiled beans at a glycemic index of about 44 to 57 against bread. Adults digested 63.2% of their amino acids.
- Split, hulled moong dal: dal is made from hulled, split beans, and dehulled beans were digested better, 70.9% against 63.2% for whole beans in the same adult trial.
- Noodles and sprouts: mung bean noodles had a glycemic index of 28 against 82 for brown rice in 10 healthy adults, and sprouts should be cooked thoroughly.
Keep dry mung beans in a resealable bag or tightly covered non-metal container in a cool, dry place, for up to a year. Cooked beans keep 3 to 4 days in the fridge or up to 6 months in the freezer. No official pesticide residue data for dry mung beans or mung bean sprouts was found, so none is quoted here.
Sources
- Fruits, veggies and juices: food safety for moms-to-be. FDA.
- 2014 Salmonella Enteritidis infections linked to bean sprouts (final update): advice to consumers and retailers. CDC. 2015.
- Bayer C, Bernard H, Prager R, et al. An outbreak of Salmonella Newport associated with mung bean sprouts in Germany and the Netherlands, October to November 2011. Euro Surveill. 2014.
- Including legumes on a low FODMAP diet. Monash FODMAP blog. 2016.
- Linlawan S, Patcharatrakul T, Somlaw N, Gonlachanvit S. Effect of rice, wheat, and mung bean ingestion on intestinal gas production and postprandial gastrointestinal symptoms in non-constipation irritable bowel syndrome patients. Nutrients. 2019.
- EFSA Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Allergens. Safety of mung bean protein as a novel food pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2015/2283. EFSA J. 2021.
- Guhsl EE, Hofstetter G, Hemmer W, et al. Vig r 6, the cytokinin-specific binding protein from mung bean (Vigna radiata) sprouts, cross-reacts with Bet v 1-related allergens and binds IgE from birch pollen allergic patients’ sera. Mol Nutr Food Res. 2014.
- Kashyap S, Varkey A, Shivakumar N, et al. True ileal digestibility of legumes determined by dual-isotope tracer method in Indian adults. Am J Clin Nutr. 2019.
- Lin MH, Wu MC, Lu S, Lin J. Glycemic index, glycemic load and insulinemic index of Chinese starchy foods. World J Gastroenterol. 2010.
- Mung bean. Wikipedia.
- How to store and cook dried beans. University of Maine Cooperative Extension. 2021.
History of mung beans
Mung beans were domesticated in India, where their wild ancestor, Vigna radiata subsp. sublobata, still grows. Archaeologists have found charred mung beans at Harappan sites about 4,500 years old, and at sites in Karnataka in South India more than 4,000 years old. The Yajurveda, a scripture from the second millennium BCE, lists mudga among important grains. A 2023 genome study of the crop also places its origin in Asia, with the cultivated form splitting from its wild parent there.
The English name comes from the Hindi mūṅg, which comes from the Sanskrit mudga. Other names are green gram, golden gram, and mongo bean in the Philippines. Botanists once called the species Phaseolus aureus and moved it to the genus Vigna in the 1970s, which is why some older studies, such as the Philippine one above, use the old name.
From India, mung beans traveled east. A study of the genomes of more than 1,000 cultivated types found that cultivation spread from South Asia to Southeast Asia, then East Asia, and last to Central Asia, even though Central Asia is closer. Climate shaped the route: farmers in the south bred for yield, those in the north for short seasons and drought tolerance. Mung beans were already at a site in southern Thailand at least 2,200 years ago.
Few beans have so many forms. Sprouts go into stir-fries, spring rolls and phở, split beans into dal, the starch into transparent noodles and jellies, and sweet mung bean paste into mooncakes and other pastries. In folk tradition, mung bean soup is drunk to relieve summer heat, and a 2026 study found that soup which turns red during cooking or storage loses some of its phenolic compounds. In 2021 EFSA judged a mung bean protein extract, which is about 85% protein, safe as a novel food in the EU.
Sources
- Mung bean. Wikipedia.
- Ong PW, Lin YP, Chen HW, et al. Environment as a limiting factor of the historical global spread of mungbean. eLife. 2023.
- Lin YP, Chen HW, Yeh PM, et al. Demographic history and distinct selection signatures of two domestication genes in mungbean. Plant Physiol. 2023.
- Ran H, Zhang M, Wang J, et al. A comparison between normal and reddened mung bean soup: beneficial effects on the regulation of oxidative stress, inflammation, and gut microbiota in mice with heat stress-induced damages. Nutrients. 2026.
- EFSA Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Allergens. Safety of mung bean protein as a novel food pursuant to Regulation (EU) 2015/2283. EFSA J. 2021.
Frequently asked questions about mung beans
Are mung beans good for you?
For most people, yes, as a food. Cooked mung beans have 105 calories, 7.6 g of fiber and 7.02 g of protein per 100 g, and a cup (202 g) covers 80% of the daily folate value and 55% of the fiber value. The human trials are few and small, though, and much of the health research is in mice, pigs or cells, so no health effect is proven.
Are mung beans high in protein?
Fairly high for a plant food. A cup of cooked mung beans has 14.2 g of protein, about 30% of the calories, and the amino acid score is 83 out of 100, limited by methionine and cysteine. Adults digested only 63.2% of the amino acids in whole mung beans in one trial, and 70.9% after dehulling, so the protein counts for less than the label suggests. Pairing beans with grains helps, and the infant study suggests a 1:2 legume-to-cereal mix.
Do mung beans cause gas?
They can, as other legumes do. Monash University says legumes are high in GOS and that boiled and drained ones tend to be lower, and suggests ¼ cup (53 g) of cooked mung beans. In 20 people with irritable bowel syndrome, a mung bean noodle meal produced about as much gas as rice and less than wheat noodles, but no trial here tested whole cooked beans for gas.
Is moong dal easy to digest?
It is often described that way, but no trial here tests the claim. What the studies do show is that hulled mung beans were digested better in adults, 70.9% against 63.2% for whole beans. Dal is made from hulled, split beans, and Monash says boiled, drained mung beans are lower in fermentable carbohydrates. If beans upset you, start with a small portion.
Are mung bean sprouts safe to eat raw?
Not for everyone. The FDA advises avoiding raw sprouts of any kind, including mung bean, and the CDC says children, older adults, pregnant women and people with weakened immune systems should avoid them. A 2011 Salmonella Newport outbreak tied to mung bean sprouts caused 106 cases in Germany. Cooking sprouts thoroughly kills the bacteria.
Are mung beans good for weight loss?
No human trial here tested weight loss. Cooked mung beans have 105 calories and 7.6 g of fiber per 100 g, so they fill a plate for few calories. Whole mung bean flour reduced weight gain in mice on a high-fat diet, but mice are not proof for people.
Are mung beans good for blood sugar and diabetes?
They look gentle on blood sugar, but the evidence is small. Boiled mung beans had a glycemic index of about 44 in one study and 57 in another, a mung bean pancake had 36, and mung bean noodles 28. Biscuits made with chickpea and mung bean flour lowered fasting blood glucose by 11.45% in a four-week diabetes trial, but the abstract gives few details. People with diabetes should check portions with their care team.