Study: legume-rich diet may reduce women's diabetes risk

NEW YORK A diet rich in beans might reduce the risk of developing Type 2 diabetes by 38 percent to 47 percent, a new study published in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition suggests.

Researchers from the Vanderbilt University Cancer Institute and the Shanghai Cancer Institute gave questionnaires to 64,227 middle-aged Chinese women who had no history of cancer, diabetes or cardiovascular disease and monitored them for about four and a half years.

Women who ate lots of legumes of any type had a 38 percent lower risk of developing Type 2 diabetes, while women with a high intake of soy beans lowered their risk by 47 percent. The risk reduction did not occur in people who ate large amounts of other soy products.

The researchers did note that the method used created the risk of reporting bias, while the results may not be universally applicable because the test only looked at Chinese women.