Eat three servings of this a week to lower your risk of diabetes.
If you want to lower your risk of diabetes, you may want to start substituting some of your nutritional decisions for legumes – especially lentils, according to a new study published in Clinical Nutrition.
Instead of analyzing the food consumed by 3,349 people at high risk for heart disease, but without type 2 diabetes, they found that those who ate an average of three servings a week of lentils, peas, beans, and chickpeas had 35 percent less likely to develop diabetes over a four-year period than those who consumed fewer legumes.
Furthermore, those who substituted only half a serving of eggs, bread, rice or baked potato a day for more legumes had even better results in terms of risk reduction.
The study didn’t exactly determine why legumes are so good at preventing diabetes, but the researchers did note that this food group contains a good amount of fiber, which is an option with a low glycemic index.
This means that it does not cause a spike in sugar after eating them, as bread or baked potatoes could, and the fiber keeps the blood glucose level stable for hours. This level of glycemic control has been highlighted as an important strategy to prevent diabetes.
Lentils, in particular, are the stars when it comes to fiber. According to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), half a cup of lentils contains eight grams of fiber, by comparison, the same amount of peas contains only four grams. The USDA recommends that people consume an average of 20 to 30 grams of fiber a day.
New research suggests that eating more legumes can push you to the recommended minimum while lowering your risk of type 2 diabetes.