Want to Boost Your Health? Then Keep Your Finger on the Pulses

by Anastasia Stephens

An extract from white kidney beans that promotes weight loss by blocking the absorption of carbohydrates has just been launched. Called DEcarb, the new supplement shows that the simple bean has more health benefits than most of us realise. But the entire pulse family has an array of health benefits. Here we explain why beans, peas and pulses should be high up on your menu.

CHOLESTEROL

Up your pulses with houmous, a falafel sandwich or some winter bean soup to keep your cholesterol in check.

'Peas and beans are good sources of soluble fibre and this is known to reduce "bad" LDL-cholesterol, the type that causes the fatty build-up on artery walls,' says Dr Susan Jebb, head of nutrition and health research at the Medical Research Council.

Soya beans and chickpeas also contain plant sterols – molecules that have been shown to reduce LDL-cholesterol while raising levels of 'good' HDL-cholesterol.

LUNGS

There is growing evidence to show that a diet rich in lentils and beans offers protection from lung cancer.

Researchers at the University of Texas found that a pulse-rich diet can cut lung-cancer risk by between 20 and 45 per cent. They concluded that the effect is due to the high levels of phytoestrogens that beans and pulses contain.

These oestrogen-like molecules attach to cell receptors in a way that protects against cancer-inducing changes in the body.

HORMONE BALANCING

Cancer Research UK reviewed a number of studies and found that women who ate diets rich in soya beans were 60 per cent less likely to have highrisk 'dense tissue' in their breasts, again due to the high levels of phytoestrogens in the soya beans.

'These oestrogen-like chemicals are up to 20,000 weaker than natural oestrogen,' says Dr Margaret Ritchie, expert in phytoestrogens at the University of St Andrews.

'When this weak oestrogen attaches to tissue in the breast, it may dampen down the effect of the woman's own oestrogen.'

In this way, phytoestrogens are thought to give a protective effect from hormone-related cancers.

These same molecules may be useful during the menopause, adding to a woman's oestrogen supply when her levels are falling.

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February 8, 2010

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