Effect of Consuming Beans for One Month on Blood Lipids, Satiety, Intake Regulation and Body Weight

The metabolic syndrome is a clustering of chronic disease risk factors, including abdominal obesity, dyslipidemia, elevated blood pressure and elevated fasting blood glucose. A main treatment for metabolic syndrome is lifestyle modification (alterations in diet and/or physical activity patterns) resulting in weight loss. Beans are easily incorporated into the diet and may lead to the attainment and maintenance of healthy a body weight and improved metabolic control. Canned baked navy beans (with tomato sauce) have a low glycemic response following consumption, however, whether this effect has long-term benefits on glycemic control requires further investigation. OBJECTIVE To determine the effect of consuming 5 cups per week of commercially available canned navy beans over 4 weeks on risk factors associated with the metabolic syndrome. Subjects Inclusion criteria: Men and women (n=16) between 35 and 55 years of age with a body mass index (BMI) of 27 to 40 kg/m2. Exclusion criteria: smoking or any major surgery/medical condition within the last 6 months, use of medications that could interfere with the study outcomes, gastrointestinal, liver or kidney disease and women who were pregnant/lactating