More Pulses Linked to Lower Heart Disease Risk

An analysis by William & Mary students Tara Kamalakantha and Catherine Zavela found an association between eating more pulses and a lower prevalence of cardiometabolic conditions, including heart disease, stroke and diabetes. Pulses are seeds eaten from legume-family plants, with dry peas, lentils, chickpeas and dry beans among the examples. The findings appeared in Current Developments in Nutrition.

Kamalakantha examined National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey information gathered from more than 46,000 U.S. adults between 1999 and 2018. Using several linear regression models, she evaluated how pulse intake corresponded with health outcomes. The results linked one extra serving each day with a 19% reduction in overall cardiometabolic disease risk. Because the study identified observational associations, it does not show that pulses caused the lower risk.

The analysis also indicated that adults ate under 0.37 ounces, or 10.5 grams, of pulses daily on average. The project took place in a lab led by Zach Conrad, an associate professor of health sciences. Zavela began the work several years earlier and helped publish initial findings on changes in pulse consumption across 20 years; Kamalakantha joined during the project's later phase.

Kamalakantha later shared the findings with the American Society for Nutrition and earned first place in its Early Career Poster Competition. She is now conducting a scoping review of the connections between pulses and environmental sustainability, food costs and social outcomes.