Reduce your risk of heart attacks by adding one food to your meals

Research shows adding one food reduces the risk for heart attacks by 38%.

Sometimes you can get big benefits by making small changes.

There are several studies showing that just adding legumes to your meals can lower your cardiovascular risk. The results of this particular study found that only 1 serving of cooked beans per day, which is one-third cup, lowered the risk for myocardial infarction with 38% when compared with those eating less than 1 serving per month (Kabagambe EK, et.al., 2005).

Consuming 130 g of beans per day which is slightly more than 1 serving, lowered LDL cholesterol significantly compared to those not eating any beans (Ha V, et.al., 2014).

An average of 19 years follow-up showed that legume consumption 4 times or more per week compared with less than once a week, was associated with a 22% lower risk of coronary heart disease (Bazzano LA,
et.al., 2001).

Beans have also been found to improve circulation in the legs when impaired from a decrease in blood
flow due to the presence of atherosclerotic plaque (Zahradka P, et.al., 2013). When ½ cup of legumes
per day were consumed by participants for 8 weeks, they saw a 5.5% increase of the ankle-brachial
index, with total and LDL-cholesterol reduced by 5.0%. The ankle-brachial index is used to measure
circulation in the legs.

Apparently, you don’t even have to eat a lot of beans to realize these benefits.

References

Bazzano LA, He J, Ogden LG, Loria C, Vupputuri S, Myers L, Whelton PK. Legume consumption and risk of coronary heart disease in US men and women: NHANES I Epidemiologic Follow-up Study.

Ha V, Sievenpiper JL, de Souza RJ, Jayalath VH, Mirrahimi A, Agarwal A, Chiavaroli L, Mejia SB, Sacks FM,
Di Buono M, Bernstein AM, Leiter LA, Kris-Etherton PM, Vuksan V, Bazinet RP, Josse RG, Beyene J, Kendall CW, Jenkins DJ. Effect of dietary pulse intake on established therapeutic lipid targets for cardiovascular risk reduction: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials. CMAJ. 2014 May 13;186(8):E252-62.

Kabagambe EK, Baylin A, Ruiz-Narvarez E, Siles X, Campos H. Decreased consumption of dried mature beans is positively associated with urbanization and nonfatal acute myocardial infarction. J Nutr. 2005 Jul;135(7):1770-5. Arch Intern Med. 2001 Nov 26;161(21):2573-8.

Zahradka P, Wright B, Weighell W, Blewett H, Baldwin A, O K, Guzman RP, Taylor CG. Daily non-soy legume consumption reverses vascular impairment due to peripheral artery disease. Atherosclerosis. 2013 Oct;230(2):310-4.

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