Emilia Klapp is a registered dietician specializing in nutrition for cardiovascular health, particularly in older people. Her book "Your Heart Needs the Mediterranean Diet" explains the benefits of the diet that gives Mediterranean populations superior cardiac health. This article is about one component of their diet - beans. Robert Griffith, Editor

Dry Beans: an Almost Perfect Food

For centuries, legumes, or dry beans, as they are commonly known, have been a staple food in the Mediterranean countries where they have played an important part in the fight against heart disease. Legumes contain essential minerals and vitamins such as iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorous, zinc, potassium, folic acid, and some of the B-complex vitamins; they are low in fat and sodium which make them an ideal food to keep high cholesterol and high blood pressure at bay. Legumes are also high in soluble fiber, the kind that lowers cholesterol, and to top it all, they can help balance your budget because they are very inexpensive; in sum, an almost perfect food.

In the past few years, research has paid a lot of attention to the connection between regular legume consumption and a lower incidence of heart disease. The studies have shown that the people who eat dry beans regularly have a lower risk of suffering from heart attacks than the ones who barely eat them. One study examined the relationship between soluble fiber intake and the risk of heart disease on 9,632 men and women over a period of 19 years. It showed that consuming legumes four times or more per week, compared with less than once a week, lowered the risk of heart disease by 22%.¹

Let's us see now why legumes are so helpful in this heart business.

Fiber: A Quick Overview

Fiber is what gives plants its structure. It's found mainly in fruits, vegetables, legumes, nuts, and seeds, as well as whole grains. It's the portion of plants that our system cannot break down because we don't have the appropriate mechanisms to do it. Consequently, our cells have very little use for fiber.

Fiber can be soluble or insoluble, and most plant foods contain a combination of both. Both types are important for our health, but the fiber that interests us today is the soluble type because it's the one that lowers cholesterol.

What Does Soluble Fiber Mean?

Soluble fiber means that the fiber dissolves in water and forms a jelly-like paste with other foods in the intestine. This feature is very important, as we'll see, because it reduces the amount of cholesterol circulating in the blood. Soluble fiber not only lowers LDL cholesterol, the "bad" guy, but also raises HDL cholesterol, the "good" guy.

Insoluble fiber does not have any effect on cholesterol but it's very beneficial for our whole body because it acts as a natural laxative and removes toxic waste by promoting regular bowel movement. Let's take a look now at how soluble fiber lowers cholesterol.

The Cholesterol-Fiber Connection

Bile, produced by the liver, is a substance necessary to break down the fat we ingest in food. To produce bile, the liver grabs the cholesterol from the blood, converts it into bile, and sends it to the gallbladder where it's stored until needed. Then, when we eat, the gallbladder sends the bile to the intestines to help break down the fat portion of the food. Once the bile has done its job in the intestines, one of two things can happen:

1. If our meal has enough soluble fiber, the fiber grabs the bile and takes it out of our body through the feces. Once the bile is gone, the liver responds by drawing more cholesterol from the blood to make new bile. The result is less cholesterol circulating in our system.

2. If our meal does not have enough soluble fiber, the bile is not taken out of the body. In this case, the liver doesn't need to draw more cholesterol from the blood to produce more bile because there is plenty available in the system. The result is more cholesterol navigating in our blood vessels.

There is one more benefit from eating this type of fiber. When our meal includes soluble fiber, this fiber gets fermented by bacteria in the colon. This fermentation produces certain compounds that prevent the formation of cholesterol. This results in lower levels of cholesterol circulating in our blood vessels.

Another benefit of including legumes as part of your diet is the effect they have on homocysteine.

What Is Homocysteine?

Homocysteine is a substance our body needs to produce certain compounds vital for our organs to function properly. To produce homocysteine, our bodies need adequate amounts of vitamin B6, B12, and folic acid. When any of these vitamins is lacking, homocysteine is not converted into the necessary compounds and spills into the circulation. Many studies have shown that when homocysteine accumulates in our system, it becomes toxic even in small amounts, increasing the risk of heart disease. High levels of homocysteine concentrations in our blood may cause a heart attack or a stroke, even among people who have normal cholesterol levels.

How Can Homocysteine Cause Heart Attacks?

Abnormal levels of homocysteine appear to:

• Damage the inner lining of the arteries
• Promote blood clots
• Oxidize LDL cholesterol

How Can You Prevent Homocysteine Accumulating In Your Blood?

Eat foods that contain folate as well as vitamins B6 and B12. Legumes are an excellent source of folate and contain moderate amounts of B6. Recent data show that the practice of fortifying foods with folate has reduced the average level of homocysteine in the U.S. population.

Do You Need to Eat Legumes Every Day?

You don't have to. Based on studies conducted during more than 25 years, nutrition experts at the Michigan State University concluded that eating 2 to 4 cups of cooked dry beans every week can protect us against heart disease². Try to include a variety of legumes such as dry beans, garbanzo beans and lentils.

To buy a copy of "Your Heart Needs the Mediterranean Diet", or for more information on the book and a free report on the "Top 10 Mediterranean Curative Ingredients", go to: http://www.mediterraneanheart.com