Snacking on hummus and bean dip might help you lose weight. A new study shows that eating a serving of beans, peas, chickpeas or lentils a day led to weight loss in adults.
Previous studies show that eating pulses like beans and lentils substantially reduced "bad cholesterol," but new research from St. Michael's Hospital reveals that it can also help dieters shed excess pounds.
The latest research, which involved 21 clinical trials with 940 participants, revealed that eating about 130 grams of pulses a day led to about 0.34 (0.75) kilograms of weight loss.
"Findings from 21 trials were included in the meta-analysis. The pooled analysis showed an overall significant weight reduction of -0.34 kg in diets containing dietary pulses compared with diets without a dietary pulse intervention over a median duration of 6 weeks," researchers wrote in the study.
"Significant weight loss was observed in matched negative-energy-balance (weight loss) diets and in neutral-energy-balance (weight-maintaining) diets (P = 0.03), and there was low evidence of between-study heterogeneity. Findings from 6 included trials also suggested that dietary pulse consumption may reduce body fat percentage," they added.
Previous studies reveal that pulses have low glycemic index and are a heart-healthy replacement to animal fats or trans-fats. One recent study showed that eating a serving of beans, peas, chickpeas or lentils a day helped improve cardiovascular health by lowering "'bad cholesterol" by 5 percent. Other studies also found that eating pulses helped keep people fuller for longer.
"This new study fits well with our previous work, which found that pulses increased the feeling of fullness by 31 per cent, which may indeed result in less food intake," said researcher Dr. Russell de Souza of the Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute of St. Michael's Hospital.
"Though the weight loss was small, our findings suggest that simply including pulses in your diet may help you lose weight, and we think more importantly, prevent you from gaining it back after you lose it," added de Souza.
"Despite their known health benefits, only 13 percent of Canadians eat pulses on any given day and most do not eat the full serving. So there is room for most of us to incorporate dietary pulses in our diet and realize potential weight management benefits," he concluded.
The findings are published in The American Journal of Clinical Nutrition.
