This study fills a crucial gap in our understanding, providing comprehensive data on how increasing bean consumption affects nutrient intake and overall diet quality within the typical American diet. The findings of this research are significant, shedding light on the impact of incorporating more beans into this dietary pattern on the intake of essential nutrients and overall diet quality.
With a robust data source from the US National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey spanning from 2001 to 2018, this analysis focused on the effects of adding one or two servings of canned and dried beans to the diets of adults aged 19 years and older, categorised into younger adults (19-50 years) and older adults (51 years and older). The beans studied included kidney beans, black beans, chickpeas, and pinto beans.
When beans were integrated into the typical American diet, there were notable increases in the intake of several critical nutrients such as dietary fibre, potassium, magnesium, iron, folate, and choline. Specifically, incorporating one serving of beans and two servings daily significantly improved overall diet quality across all adult age groups. This improvement in diet quality, as assessed using the Healthy Eating Index-2015 scores, was approximately 15-16% higher with one additional serving of beans and 19-20% higher with two servings compared to the typical American diet pattern.
Dietary patterns that include a substantial amount of beans are associated with significantly better diet quality scores and increased consumption of nutrients essential for public health. This study suggests that promoting higher consumption of canned and dry beans in dietary guidelines could lead to significant health benefits for younger adults and older age groups.
More information: Yanni Papanikolaou et al, Adding more beans to the US typical dietary pattern can lead to greater intake of shortfall nutrients and a higher diet quality in younger and older adults, Maturitas. DOI: 10.1016/j.maturitas.2024.108012
Journal information: Maturitas Provided by The Ginger Network
