Lentils can have a positive effect on your weight and obesity-related killers
A diet that includes plenty of foods comprised of low glycaemic-load (GL) carbohydrates - such as lentils, kidney beans, some types of fruit and high fibre wholegrain cereals - can have a significant positive effect not only on your weight, but also on your risk of obesity-related killers such as cancer and heart disease. Foods that score low in the glycaemic-load table are ones that don’t cause your blood sugar levels to rise quickly as you digest them. They also have the added benefit of increasing the body’s production of a hormone that manages fat storage.
A US laboratory trial, carried out among 80 men and women with body weights ranging from ‘normal’ to clinically obese, examined how eating more of the low score vegetables and fruits affected levels of C-reactive protein in the body. C-reactive protein is associated with a greater risk of many forms of cancer and heart problems.
The researchers found that levels of the protein fell by 22% in overweight and obese participants who switched to the low GL diet. The team at the Cancer Prevention Program in the Public Health Sciences Division at the Fred Hutchinson Center, Seattle also found that the diet changes boosted levels of adiponectin in overweight individuals; this is a hormone that researchers say plays a key role in protecting against several cancers as well as metabolic disorders such as type-2 diabetes.