Legumes and Mortality

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Hi folks:

Here is the abstract of the study attributing appreciable reductions

in mortality to legumes. The full text is not accessible,

unfortunately:

" Legumes: the most important dietary predictor of survival in older

people of different ethnicities.

Blackberry I, Kouris-Blazos A, Wahlqvist ML, Steen B, Lukito W, Horie

Y.

Public Health Division, National Ageing Research Institute,

Melbourne, Australia.

Introduction: Nutrition plays an important role in the maintenance

and improvement of human life expectancy. The 'Food Habits in Later

Life' (FHILL) is a cross-cultural study conducted under the auspices

of the International Union of Nutritional Sciences (IUNS) and the

World Health Organization (WHO). Baseline data on food habits, health

status and social variables were collected from five cohorts aged 70

and over (Japanese in Japan, Swedes in Sweden, Anglo-Celtic in

Australia, Greeks in Australia and Greece). Objective: To identify

protective dietary predictors amongst long-lived elderly people

(n=785) from the FHILL population after controlling for ethnicity.

Methods: The validated FFQ were used to collect data on food intakes

in all cohorts except Japanese where the 3d weighed food record

method was employed. Intakes in gram/week were calculated by

multiplying the serving size by the weekly frequency of intake. These

values were further translated into gram/day and were adjusted to

2500 kcal (10,460 kJ) for men and 2000 kcal (8,368 kJ) for women.

Food items were grouped into nine food groups based on key features

of the Traditional Mediterranean Diet (vegetables, legumes, fruits

and nuts, cereals (including starchy roots), dairy products, meat,

fish, monounsaturated: saturated ratio, and ethanol). All-cause

mortality data were obtained from up to seven years follow-up.

Alternative Proportional Hazard model adjusted to age at

enrolment (in 5-year interval), gender, and smoking was developed to

analyse the survival data. Each model was tested against

controlling for cohorts' location and ethnicity. Results: Only for

legumes intake was the result plausible, consistent and statistically

significant across collective FHILL cohort's data. There is a 7% - 8%

reduction in mortality hazard ratio for every 20g increase in daily

legume intake with adjustment for location/ethnicity (RR 0.92; 95% CI

0.85 - 0.99) and without adjustment for location/ethnicity (RR 0.93;

95% CI 0.87 - 0.99). Conclusions: This longitudinal study shows that

a higher legume intake is the most protective dietary predictor of

survival amongst the elderly, regardless of their ethnicity. The

significance of legumes persisted even after controlling for age at

enrolment (in 5-year interval), gender, and smoking. Legumes have

been associated with long-lived food cultures such as the Japanese

(soy, tofu, natto, miso), the Swedes (brown beans, peas), and the

Mediterranean people (lentils, chickpeas, white beans). "

PMID: 15294666