Beans, Beans. They Really Are Good For Your Heart

Researchers at Johns Hopkins School of Medicine have learned something that middle-school students have been telling each other as long as Geezer can remember, which, frankly, isn’t all that long. Beans are good for you heart. So is olive oil.
The San Francisco Chronicle reports that researchers at the school were concerned that the DASH (Dietary Approaches to Stopping Hypertension) diet,— lots of fruits and
vegetables, nuts, and low-fat dairy
products, and lean cuts of meat, fish
and poultry  —  which is widely recommended to control blood pressure, produces mixed results when it comes to cholesterol levels. While the diet lowers low-density lipoprotein (LDL), it does nothing for triglycerides. The researchers looked at three variations of the diet (one richer in
carbohydrates, one richer in protein and one richer in healthy fat) and studied their effects on
blood pressure, blood cholesterol and heart disease risk. They found that all three diets produced large enough reductions in blood pressure and LDL cholesterol to cut the 10-year risk of coronary heart disease by at least 16
percent. But both the higher protein and higher healthy fat diets outperformed
the standard high carbohydrate DASH diet on both measures. The big news? A healthy diet that
replaces some carbohydrates with either plant protein, such as beans, or monounsaturated fat, such as olive oil, can substantially reduce blood pressure and cholesterol levels. Read more from Johns Hopkins.