Randomized controlled trial on the effects of legumes on cardiovascular risk factors in women with abdominal obesity

Background: the effect of legume-based hypocaloric diet on cardiovascular disease (cvd)risk factors in women is unclear. this study provides an opportunity to find effects of highlegumediet on cvd risk factors in women who consumed high legumes at baseline.methods: this randomized controlled trial was undertaken in 34 premenopausal women withcentral obesity. after 2 weeks of a run-in period on an isocaloric diet, subjects were randomlyassigned into two groups: (1) hypocaloric diet enriched with legumes (hdel) (n = 17) (twoservings per day) and (2) hypocaloric diet without legumes (hdwl) (n = 17) for 6 weeks. thefollowing variables were assessed before intervention, 3, and 6 weeks after it: waist to hip ratio(whr), total cholesterol (tc), low-density lipoprotein-cholesterol (ldl-c), high-sensitive-creactiveprotein (hs-crp), total antioxidant capacity (tac), nitric oxides (nox), andmalondialdehyde (mda).results: both hypocaloric diets reduced hs-crp in 3 weeks and returned it to basal valuesafter 6 weeks (p = 0.004). hdwl significantly reduced whr [p = 0.010 (3.2%)] and increasedtc [p < 0.001 (6.3%)]. despite the significant effect of hdel on increasing tac in 3 weeks[p = 0.050 (4%)], the level of tac remained the same in 6 weeks. none of the diets had anysignificant effects on nox and mda.conclusion: the study indicated that beneficial effects of legumes on tc, ldl-c, and hs-crpwere achieved by three servings per week, and consuming more amounts of these products hadno more advantages.