It is quite common knowledge that eating legumes in adequate portions can improve the quality of food.
Compared to refined cereals (or derivatives), legumes such as: lentils, beans, chickpeas, broad beans, peas, lupins, etc. have a higher nutritional value. For example, they decrease energy intake, improve the glycemic index of the meal, increase fiber intake, provide more minerals and vitamins, and play a protective role against various metabolic disorders.
Hypertension, as well as dyslipidemias and type 2 diabetes mellitus, is a risk factor for heart attack and stroke, the main causes of mortality worldwide. The prevalence of hypertension is set to increase and the advisable pharmacological treatments cannot however solve all the problems related to the disease.
In 2014, an experimental analysis on rats was published that demonstrated the effectiveness of lentils in moderating the severity of hypertensive disease. Below we will summarize briefly what mentioned in the abstract.
The study lasted 15 weeks and involved various rat samples. One was composed of spontaneously hypertensive animals (SHR), a part of which was fed a diet containing 30% of beans, peas, lentils, chickpeas and mixed vegetables, while the other was fed with a diet that was free. In parallel, a group of normotensive rats (WKY) underwent a control diet.
Researchers measured pulse wave velocity (PWV) each week, while blood pressure (BP) was assessed at baseline at 4 weeks. Then, the lipid composition of the fasting blood serum was observed, again at the 4th week of treatment. Furthermore, a histological analysis was performed on the aortic sections to determine vascular geometry.
Of all the varieties of legumes studied, lentils were able to attenuate arterial pressure (PA) in the SHR model; they also decreased: the lumen ratio and the average width of the aorta. The levels of total cholesterol (TC), LDL cholesterol (LDL-C) and HDL cholesterol (HDL-C) of rats fed diets based on legumes were lower than those of WKY rats and the SHR control group.
Although all the legumes reduced TC and LDL in the SHR, only the lentils significantly moderated the PA and the large artery section in the SHR group; on the other hand, they had no effect on the PWV.
These results indicate that the effects of lentils on arterial scaling (section) and on BP in the SHR group are independent of the circulating levels of LDL-C; it is therefore possible that this mechanism is different for the two metabolic processes.
