Legumes 500 g Woman +3.18 years Man +4.06 years

Legumes 500 g Woman +3.18 years Man +4.06 year

Rain-soaked days when my mother’s garden was filled with tender green beans and golden wax beans wafting over the ground are my first memories of vegetables. Scanian peas shone like green globes on the plate. As a child, I put dried yellow peas in flowerpots to see the greenery breaking out everywhere, and I shot the peas that were left with a blowpipe.

Archaeologists have discovered 7,500-year-old beans and legumes in the Indus Valley, Egyptian pyramids, and cuneiform recipes.

In a small Swiss village, pea seeds were found dating back to the Stone Age. They have been cultivated in the eastern Mediterranean for at least 5,000 years.

The family Leguminosae (legumes, peas, or beans) is the third-largest family of flowering plants and consists of over 20,000 species. In 1770, the soybean came to the United States when Benjamin Franklin sent seeds to Philadelphia from France. The vegetarian Henry Ford invested a million dollars in soybean research and was the first to use them for industrial purposes.

Legumes are a sustainable crop important in rotational agriculture as they bind nitrogen, enrich the soil, and emit seven times less greenhouse gas than other crops. Leguminous plants can be used as fodder, are climate-smart, have a low environmental impact, and, thanks to their long shelf life, they rarely need to be thrown away.

Positive effects: Legumes are the heart’s best friend, with lots of fiber, folate, and phytochemicals but low levels of saturated fat and sodium. Fiber in legumes lowers bad cholesterol in the blood and prevents blood sugar spikes, reducing the risk of cardiovascular disease. An analysis showed that eating legumes four times a week gave a 14% lower risk of coronary artery disease.
Afshin A, Micha R, Khatibzadeh S, Mozaffarian D. Consumption of nuts and legumes and risk of incident ischemic heart disease, stroke, and diabetes: a systematic review and meta-analysis. American journal of clinical nutrition. 2014 Jun 4;100(1):278-88.

Professor Lars Fadnes and researchers at the University of Bergen have developed an online calculator (free link at sworddiet.com) in the study “Estimation of the impact of food choices on life expectancy” that can estimate how many extra years of life you gain by optimizing your diet compared to the Western standard diet. Lars told me you can adjust everything individually based on age, calorie needs, etc.

An example of a longer lifespan is 500 g of legumes per day for a 20-year-old who consumes 2322 kcal: Woman +3.18 years, Man +4.06 years.

Fadnes LT, Økland J-M, Haaland ØA, Johansson KA (2022) https://sword.se/products/Baljvaxter-500-g-Kvinna-3-18-ar-Man-4-06-ar-c159623900#:~:text=https%3A//journals.plos.org/plosmedicine/article%3Fid%3D... Estimating impact of food choices on life expectancy: A modeling study. https://food4healthylife.org/ https://priorityapp.shinyapps.io/Food/

A study examining legumes and heart health followed 9,632 men and women for 19 years. Legumes at least four times a week provided a 22% less danger of heart disease and an 11% lower risk of stroke than those who ate legumes less than once a week.

Bazzano LA, He J, Ogden LG, Loria C, Vupputuri S, Myers L, Whelton PK. Legume consumption and risk of coronary artery disease in US men and women: NHANES I Epidemiologic Follow-up Study. Archive for internal medicine. 2001 Nov 26;161(21):2573-8.

One study found that legumes lowered fasting total cholesterol by about 7%, harmful LDL cholesterol by 6%, and raised good HDL cholesterol by 2.6%.

Anderson JW, Major AW. Pulse and lipemia, short- and long-term effect: potential for cardiovascular disease prevention. British Journal of Nutrition. 2002 Dec;88(S3):263-71.

Legumes contribute to weight loss. Its protein and fibers increase the feeling of satiety and can moderately increase the body’s calorie consumption.

Rebello CJ, Greenway FL, Finley JW. A review of the nutritional value of legumes and their effects on obesity and its related comorbidities. Obesity reviews. 2014 May;15(5):392-407.

Fiber takes time to chew and slows down eating and digestion, which gives a feeling of satiety. Only 40% of the fiber in a food is broken down during digestion, which reduces calorie intake. Ivan Pavlov received the Nobel Prize for his research on the digestive system of mammals, which increased the understanding of how the stomach digests food.

A study of 8,229 people found that those who ate beans had lower body weight and smaller waists than those who did not. Bean eaters had a 23% lower risk of increased waist size and a 22% lower risk of obesity.

Papanikolaou Y, Fulgoni III VL. Bean consumption is associated with greater nutrient intake, reduced systolic blood pressure, lower body weight, and a smaller waist circumference in adults: results from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey 1999-2002. Journal of the American College of Nutrition. 2008 Oct 1;27(5):569-76.

American Institute for Cancer Research and the World Cancer Research Fund set the public health goal of including legumes in most people’s meals for their high fiber content. A fiber-rich diet reduces the risk of certain cancers, and the WCRF wrote that “foods containing dietary fiber reduce the risk of colorectal cancer.”

World Cancer Research Fund. Diet, nutrition, physical activity and cancer: a global perspective. A summary of the third expert report https://www.wcrf.org/sites/default/files/Summary-o... and https://www.wcrf.org/dietandcancer/exposures/whole-fruit-fruits. Accessed 8/2/2019.

A study of over 73,000 women in China found a 22-59% lower risk of various types of breast cancer in those who consumed the most soy relative to those who consumed the least soy.

Lee SA, Shu XO, Li H, Yang G, Cai H, Wen W, Ji BT, Gao J, Gao YT, Zheng W. Adolescent and adult soy food intake and breast cancer risk: results from the Shanghai Women's Health Study–. American journal of clinical nutrition. 2009 Apr 29;89(6):1920-6.

Legumes have a lot of fiber and starch that is digested slowly and have a low glycemic index, which can prevent diabetes. A study of 64,277 women in China without diabetes found that after 4.5 years, those who ate the most legumes compared to those who ate the least had a 38% lower risk of type 2 diabetes.

Villegas R, Gao YT, Yang G, Li HL, Elasy TA, Zheng W, Shu XO. Legume and soy intake and the incidence of type 2 diabetes in the Shanghai Women's Health Study. American journal of clinical nutrition. 2008 Jan 1;87(1):162-7.

Many legumes are as rich in iron as meat, and you improve ironabsorption with vitamin C-rich citrus fruits and peppers.

Legumes are loaded with minerals and B vitamins, such as Riboflavin, which protects cells against oxidative stress and reduces fatigue. Minerals in legumes are iron, magnesium, potassium, zinc, and phosphorus, which contribute to typical bone structure and energy metabolism. Legumes, with their content of calcium and vitamins, are alternatives to dairy products.

Tip: Legumes (beans, lentils, peas, and peanuts) are, with their high protein content, a perfect alternative to meat. Dried legumes have roughly the same protein content as meat, about 20%. The soybean has 36% protein and the best protein quality.

Legumes are cheap and good for bulk cooking, and dried legumes swell to double when cooked. The five blue zones on earth where most people live to be 100 years old have legumes as a common denominator. Learn from their food craft and love of legumes.