Thursday, February 5, 2009

Tiny-healthy legumes

Have we started setting aside legumes on our daily menus for some reasons? Perhaps we’ve already long forgotten them. Why not? Most of the people around us laid the verdict already. It causes or may develop arthritis as they say.

In contrast to the hearsay I’ve been hearing from some folks within and far from our place. To my relief (because I love legumes), below is a result of long study how legumes could be of much help to our health.

Taking a part of Canada’s RD February health news:

Diabetes. An increased intake of legumes could reduce risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by about 40 percent, according to researchers from the Shanghai Women’s Health Study ( a population-based study whose participants are being monitored for the occurrence of several diseases). They assessed the diets of more than 64, 000 women over 4 ½ years. Of all subjects, those who had the highest intake of legumes had a significantly lower incidence of the disease, adding further evidence to the beneficial effects of this food.
Coronary Heart Disease. Data from a large study of more than 9,600 healthy adults showed that those who ate legumes four more times a week had a significantly lower risk of coronary heart disease than those who ate them once a week or less.
Cancer. There is some evidence that legumes may decrease risk of developing prostate cancer. This may be due, in part, to their plant chemicals such as saponins and phytosterols.

I couldn’t almost believe it but here it is. It is such good news for us who like eating these tiny creatures. Ultimately we can start loving and eating legumes again.

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