Daily Cup of Beans Improves Heart Health in Those With Prediabetes

ORLANDO — Eating a cup of beans daily reduced inflammation and improved cholesterol levels in people with prediabetes, a randomized control study presented at the annual NUTRITION meeting showed.

“I think something that primary care physicians could take away from our study is that intervening before the onset of disease was effective for this particular group, particularly in the markers that are associated with CVD-like lipids,” Morganne M. Smith, MS, a doctoral candidate at Illinois Institute of Technology (IIT) and lead study author, told Healio.

In the analysis, the researchers assessed changes in several cardiovascular measures — such as blood sugar, inflammation and total cholesterol — over 12 weeks among 72 participants randomly assigned to 1 cup of chickpeas, white rice or black beans a day.

Fasting blood samples were taken at baseline, 6 weeks and 12 weeks, while glucose tolerance tests were conducted at the start and end of the study, according to a press release.