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21.06.2018

Why getting more of your carbs from legumes will make you healthier

A diet that limits the increase of your glucose levels after a meal is healthier in the longer term. This may reduce your risk of type-2 diabetes, slow the rate of aging and also improve your body composition. Canadian nutrition scientists have discovered an easy way to limit the glucose uptake from standard meals: you replace half of your potatoes and rice with lentils. Or by other legumes, if you are not a big fan of lentils.

Study
The researchers, who are affiliated with the University of Guelph, experimented with 2 groups of 24 healthy adults. The gave one group a meal based on rice on 4 different occasions. On one occasion the subjects only ate rice, the other three times the researchers had replaced half of the rice with lentils. On one occasion they were small green lentils, the other time large green lentils and a third time red lentils.

In the experiment with the other group of 24 subjects, the researchers did the same, but with potatoes instead of rice.

All meals yielded 50 grams of absorbable carbohydrates. The exact nutritional value of the meals is shown in tables below.

Results
The replacement of part of the rice and potatoes with lentils meant that in the 120 minutes after the meal the concentration of glucose and insulin in the blood of the subjects increased less. Especially the replacement of potatoes had an effect.

Conclusion
The partial replacement of rice and potatoes with lentils reduced the rise in glucose levels by 25 and 35 percent respectively. That is considerable.

"Having high levels [of glucose] over a period of time can lead to mismanagement of blood glucose, which is the hallmark of Type 2 diabetes", says co-author Alison Duncan in a press releaset. [sciencedaily.com June 13, 2018] "Essentially, eating lentils can lower that risk."

Source:
J Nutr. 2018 Apr 1;148(4):535-41.

More:
Legumes facilitate weight maintenance and fat loss 20.01.2018
Diet of beans, fermented dairy products, fruit, coffee, nuts and seaweed delays aging 09.01.2017
Want to live longer? Eat lots of beans, nuts and fish, and avoid soft drinks 10.06.2016

Archives:
Insulin & Glucose Metabolism
Legumes

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