Hummus is packed full of diabetes-friendly complex carbs, protein, heart-healthy monounsaturated fats, and vitamins and minerals. It has a low glycemic index because your body digests them slowly. That means they aren’t absorbed as quickly as other carbs and won’t spike your blood sugar. The chickpeas in hummus give it lots of fiber and protein to fill you up too.

It’s hard to believe something as healthy as hummus could cause a riff between two nations. But that’s what a few handfuls of ground chickpeas did back in 2009.  “The Hummus Wars” began when Lebanon’s minister of tourism­, Fadi Abboud, wanted to break the world record for making the largest tub of hummus in the world. Lebanon’s goal was to claim hummus as their national dish and stop other nations, especially Israel, from encroaching on their proprietary rights of hummus. 

“I thought the best way to tell the world that the hummus is Lebanese is to break the Guinness Book of Records,” said Fadi Abboud in an interview.

At the ceremony, Guinness awarded Lebanon’s 4,532-pound plate of hummus the prize. A gleeful Abboud announced, “We want the whole world to know that hummus and tabouli are Lebanese, and by breaking [into] the Guinness Book of World Records, the world should know our cuisine, our culture.”

Of course, the ceremony’s results became big news all over the Mideast region, along with Lebanon’s fervent boasts claiming that hummus solely belonged to them. Unfortunately, Lebanon’s claim did not sit well with everyone.

So in 2010, the people of Abu Gosh set out to break Lebanon’s claim to the Guinness Book of World Records. When they did that, the news was broadcast worldwide. “In the town of Abu Gosh this morning, Israel re­took the title for the world’s largest hummus dish, weighing 4 tons and served in what a broadcaster described as something resembling a ‘satellite dish.’ 

The Lebanese heard the news and quickly counter-attacked. They created an even bigger entry by producing a vat of 23,042 pounds of hummus.  They were also trying unsuccessfully to simultaneously register the word “hummus” with the European Union (EU), thus banning any country other than Lebanon from calling their product hummus.

The EU previously had awarded a similar protective designation of origins to other countries. France had successfully registered Champagne, Italy registered Parmigiano Reggiano, and Greece laid claim to feta cheese. Unfortunately, the EU believed that hummus was the food of an entire region, not a country. Therefore they did not allow Lebanon to register hummus as its own.

And so hummus became a symbol of all the tension in the Middle East. But even as the Hummus Wars continue, nobody gets hurt with this war.

Enjoy another food story. Tune in to Divabetic’s Annual Mystery podcast, Tomorrow Is Not On The Menu.

The happy healthcare host, Mr. Divabetic, lands his to-die-for job as a caterer for the nation’s hottest health guru, Wendy Wattage’s Wellness Retreat on the Jersey Shore. Everything seems low pressure and low calorie until the body of the nasty food critic, Marilyn Macaroni, is found stabbed to death with one of Max’s new chef knives. Now he’s the prime suspect in a big, fat murder investigation!

Can he and his team of friends, diabetes educators, and his nosey Italian mother, Mama Rose Marie, find the killer before the police arrive? Or will he be trading his fruit suit for coveralls with stripes?

Weight loss murder never tasted so good.

Starring Mr. Divabetic, Best-Selling Author Tonya Kappes, Mama Rose Marie, Patricia Addie-Gentle RN, CDCES, Maryann Horst Nicolay MEd, NTDR, Kathie Dolgin aka ‘High Voltage,’ Seveda Williams, Catherine Schuller and Lorraine Brooks. Produced by Leisa Chester Weir. Special thanks to our colleague, the multi-talented Wendy Radford.

Music from The Pink Panther and The Return of The Pink Panther soundtracks by Henry Mancini courtesy of SONY Music.