You should eat 29 grams of peas, chickpeas, beans, soybeans and lentils to lower the risk of developing Type-2 diabetes to 35%, a study has revealed.
The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Nutrition, revealed that people who consume 28.75 grams of legumes daily, which is equal to 3.35 servings of legumes per week had 35% lower risk of developing Type-2 Diabetes.
Legumes are a food group rich in B vitamins, contain different beneficial minerals (calcium, potassium and magnesium) and sizeable amounts of fibre and are regarded as a low-glycemic index food - which means that blood glucose levels increase only slowly after consumption.
Researchers from Universitat Rovira i Virgili in Tarragona, Spain in collaboration with other research groups in the PREDIMED study evaluated the association between the consumption of the different sub-types of non-soy legumes and the risk of Type-2 diabetes among individuals at high cardiovascular risk.
The study analysed 3,349 participants at high risk of cardiovascular disease but without Type-2 diabetes.
They also evaluated the effect of replacing other protein and carbohydrate-rich foods with legumes on the development of the disease.
The results revealed that of the different subtypes of legume, lentils in particular were associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes.
Those participants who had a higher consumption of lentils during the follow-up (nearly one serving/week) compare to those individuals with a lower consumption (less than half a serving per week) had a 33 percent lower risk of developing the disease.
The researchers also found that the effect of replacing half a serving/day of foods rich in protein or carbohydrates, including eggs, bread, rice and baked potato, for half a serving/day of legumes was also associated with a lower risk of type 2 diabetes incidence.
(ANI)
