Legume consumption and risk of all-cause, cardiovascular, and cancer mortality in the PREDIMED study.

Papandreou C, Becerra-Tomás N, Bulló M, Martínez-González MÁ, Corella D, Estruch R, Ros E, Arós F, Schröder H, Fitó M, Serra-Majem L, Lapetra J, Fiol M, Ruiz-Canela M, Sorlí JV, Salas-Salvadó J

Clinical nutrition (Edinburgh, Scotland) · February 1, 2019

Limited prospective studies have examined the association between legumes consumption and mortality. We aimed to investigate the association between total legumes consumption and grain legume species (dry beans, chickpeas, lentils, and fresh peas) with all-cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD), cancer and other-cause mortality among elderly Mediterranean individuals at high CVD risk. We prospectively assessed 7216 participants from the PREDIMED study. During a median follow-up of 6.0 years, 425 total deaths occurred. Higher total legumes and lentils consumption was associated with 49% and 37% lower risk of cancer mortality respectively, comparing extreme tertiles. Findings support the benefits of legumes consumption for cancer mortality prevention, which may be counterbalanced by a higher risk for CVD mortality seen with dry bean consumption specifically.

PMID: 29352655 · DOI: 10.1016/j.clnu.2017.12.019