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Beans, Beans, Good for Your Heart?

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This supports other research that demonstrates that beans of various types have heart-healthy benefits. A 19-year analysis of the First National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, the nation’s premier health census, found that people who ate beans four or more times a week were 22 percent less likely to develop heart disease than those who ate them less than once weekly. Soluble fiber is a key reason why, says Philip Ades, M.D., author of the new EatingWell for a Healthy Heart Cookbook (The Countryman Press, 2008). “Like all foods that contain a lot of soluble fiber, beans help bind cholesterol and keep it from being absorbed in the gut,” he explains. And, as the fiber is fermented, it produces changes in short-chain fatty acids that can inhibit cholesterol formation. (By-products of this same fermentation process are what cause the gas so often associated with eating beans.)

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