Beans and Pulses: Key to a Healthier Diet for Americans

November 1, 2024 1

Learn how including beans and pulses in the American diet can improve nutrition deficiency and diet patterns.

Beans and Pulses: Key to a Healthier Diet for Americans

Eating beans and pulses can result in an overall healthier diet pattern among Americans. Bean and pulse-rich diets are associated with considerably higher diet quality scores and increased intake of deficit nutrients, especially nutrients of public health concern.

Edible plant seeds belonging to the legume family are called pulses. Beans, peas, chickpeas, and lentils are examples of pulses that grow in pods and vary in size, shape, and color. Black beans, chickpeas, pinto beans, and kidney beans (dried and canned) were all included in the composite for the research.

Influence of Pluse Diet on Nurtition and Diet Quality

Based on information from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, 2001–2018, the analyses simulated the addition of adult one- and two-serving portions of beans, as above mentioned.

Increased bean consumption is related to considerable increases in key deficiency nutrients, including dietary fiber, potassium, magnesium, iron, folate, and choline.

The USDA’s Healthy Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015) evaluated overall diet quality and found that adding one or two servings of beans per day to the usual US dietary pattern greatly boosted it.

The HEI-2015 overall scores were higher than the US normal dietary pattern by 15% with one more serving of beans and 19% with two servings.

This analysis showed that beans significantly increased the amount of dietary fiber consumed daily in both younger and older persons. Less than 10% of US adults consume the recommended amount of fiber to maintain good digestive health and prevent chronic illnesses like obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, and some types of cancer.

Additionally, most people in the US do not consume enough potassium. According to the American Heart Association, “foods with potassium can help control blood pressure by blunting the effects of sodium and the more potassium you eat, the more sodium you process out of the body.”

Bean Consumption can Reduce the Risk of Chronic Diseases

“This research clearly shows that eating beans and pulses is good, but eating more is better.,” states study author Yanni Papanikolaou, of Nutritional Strategies Inc.

“Beans and pulses are excellent sources of fiber, folate and potassium and excellent sources of plant protein that also provides iron and zinc like other protein foods.” The study was funded by Cannedbeans.org on behalf of Bush’s Best and the Coalition for the Advancement of Pulses.

Beans and pulses remain under consumed in the United States, with more than 80% of the population below recommendations. Consumption data show beans, peas, and legumes are consumed in relatively small amounts, at an average of 0.1 cup/day.

Recent research published in the journal Nutrtion(1^✔ ✔Trusted Source
Adult dietary patterns with increased bean consumption are associated with greater overall shortfall nutrient intakes, lower added sugar, improved weight-related outcomes and better diet quality

Go to source) shows that dietary patterns rich in canned and dried kidney beans, black beans, pinto beans and/or chickpeas are associated with significantly higher diet quality scores.

The highest diet quality scores are associated with 24% decreased risk of cardiovascular disease, 31% reduced risk of coronary heart disease, 20% lowered risk of stroke, 23% decreased risk of diabetes, and 6% reduced risk of cancer.

“This research supports the growing body of evidence that consumption of beans and pulses may have numerous nutrient and public health benefits,” said Tim McGreevy, CEO, of USA Pulses.

“Pulses are so nutritious that they were recently listed on DietaryGuidelines.gov as among the highest sources of potassium, iron and fiber, three nutrients of concern, in the latest health professional resources.”

Reference:

Adult dietary patterns with increased bean consumption are associated with greater overall shortfall nutrient intakes, lower added sugar, improved weight-related outcomes and better diet quality – (https:nutritionj.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12937-024-00937-1)

Source-Eurekalert