Abstract
The common bean is a nutrient-dense food empirically known to have beneficial effects on human health. Many studies have looked at the effects of “pulses” on different health issues, providing general overviews of the importance of each pulse in health studies. This study systematically reviews and provides meta-analyses of the effect of bean extract as a supplement or whole bean on four health issues (cardiovascular diseases, diabetes mellitus, obesity, and cancers) from a dissection of clinical and randomized controlled trials using human subjects. A digital search in PubMed and Google ScholarTM resulted in 340 articles, with only 23 peer-reviewed articles matching our inclusion criteria. Findings indicated that common beans reduced LDL cholesterol by 19 percent, risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) by 11 percent, and coronary heart disease (CHD) by 22 percent. Besides this, we noted variances in the literature on cancer findings, with some authors stating it reduced the proliferation of some kinds of tumor cells and reduced the growth of polyps, while others did not specifically examine cancers but the predisposing factors alone. However, diabetes studies indicated that the postprandial glucose level at the peak of 60 min for common bean consumers was low (mean difference = −2.01; 95% CI [−4.6, −0.63]), but the difference between the treated and control was not significant, and there was a high level of heterogeneity among studies (I2 = 98%). Only obesity studies indicated a significantly high level of weight gain among control groups (mean difference = 1.62; 95% CI [0.37, 2.86]). There is a need for additional clinical trials using a standardized measure to indicate the real effect of the common bean on health.
Highlights
Pulses are regarded as nutritional powerhouses and an alternative component of healthy diets among poor households [1]
We focus on common beans and include four main health issues that have not been combined in other meta-analyses
195.82 g/day of cooked whole beans was given to participants
Summary
Pulses are regarded as nutritional powerhouses and an alternative component of healthy diets among poor households [1]. The global per capita intake of pulses is about 21 g per day, with SSA averaging 33 g per capita per day [3] This can be as high as 107 g per meal per person for common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.). Common beans were once considered a “poor man’s meat” across many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa [4,5], because they were not being consumed by the rich. They are the most produced crops, and are second only to maize in some countries, such as Kenya [6]
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