Legumes: A component of a healthy diet

In the December issue of the Journal of Research in Medical Sciences, Alizadeh et al have demonstrated that consumption of a legumes-rich hypocaloric diet for 6 weeks reduced some anthropometric measures such as waist, hip, triceps, biceps, subscapular and suprailiac skin fold thicknesses among healthy premenopausal women with central obesity. Beneficiary effects of legumes consumption like reduction of proinflammatory biomarkers have been reported previously. Several cross-sectional and prospective studies have also indicated the negative association of legume consumption with obesity and cardiovascular diseases. Besides the beneficial effects of non-soy legumes, large body of documents are available regarding the effects of soy consumption on controlling and preventing cardio-metabolic risks; improving features of the metabolic syndrome following a short-term period of soy consumption, weight reducing effect of soy intake, and favorable effects for type II diabetes are some aspects of these beneficial effects.