Eating one serving of legumes a day could help reduce "bad cholesterol."
Legumes could include foods such as "beans, chickpeas, lentils and peas," a Canadian Medical Association Journal news release reported.
High cholesterol levels can lead to cardiovascular disease, but can often easily be regulated through diet and other lifestyle changes.
Most chronic disease prevention guidelines suggest consumption of non-oil-seed legumes along with fruits and vegetables.
In order to make their findings the researchers looked at 26 randomized controlled trials that encompassed 1,037 people. The research team noticed a five percent reduction in low-density lipoprotein (LDL) cholesterol in those who ate one serving of legumes a day.
This phenomenon was more prominent in men, possibly because of higher cholesterol levels and a generally poorer diet.
"The reduction of [five percent LDL cholesterol] in our meta-analysis suggests a potential risk reduction of [five percent] in major vascular events," Doctor John Sievenpiper of the Clinical Nutrition and Risk Factor Modification Centre, Li Ka Shing Knowledge Institute, St. Michael's Hospital, said in the news release.
Legume consumption tends to be low in Western regions such as the U.S. and Canada, but one serving a day is "reasonable and is currently consumed by many cultures without reports of adverse effects that would limit consumption," the researchers said in the news release.
"Canadians have a lot of room in their diets to increase their pulse intake and derive cardiovascular benefits," Sievenpiper said. "Only 13 [percent] consume pulses on any given day, and of those who do, the average intake is only about a half serving."
The researchers hope this finding will encourage people to choose healthier diets.
"Because dietary pulse intake may have beneficial effects on other cardiometabolic risk factors, including body weight, blood pressure and glucose control, future systematic reviews and meta-analyses should evaluate the effects of such dietary interventions on these outcomes and others, to address factors that contribute to residual cardiovascular disease risk," the authors wrote.
