Bean Institute

By Henry J. Thompson, PhD

I conduct some of my research in a cancer clinic and am frequently asked for practical advice on things that a person can do to reduce either their risk for the initial occurrence of cancer or for cancer recurrence following the diagnosis of cancer and its treatment. While my guidance continues to be to eat a balanced, plant food rich diet in moderation, to maintain a physically active life style, and to keep body weight in what is considered the healthy range for one’s height, I now suggest that individuals consume at least one half cup of cooked beans daily, and more if they are willing, perhaps as much as 1.5 cups of cooked beans per day.

This is a simple suggestion that may do a lot for personal health as well as the health of our planet; and yet, few Americans come close to following this suggestion. Should you try? In the following paragraphs, a brief summary is provided of why I have added bean guidance to my list of lifestyle recommendations.

The Evidence

Epidemiological studies have found links between the incidence of cancer and consumption of bean. Correa examined data from 41 countries and found a significant inverse relationship between bean consumption and morbidity due to breast, prostate, and colon cancer (1).

The Nurses Health Study II was used to evaluate the hypothesis that intake of dietary flavonols and flavonol-rich foods including apples, blueberries, broccoli, onions, peppers, pulses, and tea, would be inversely related to breast cancer risk (2). While no overall association between intake of flavonols and risk of breast cancer was observed, the intake of common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) and lentils, which are categorized as pulses, was associated with reduced breast cancer risk (RR=0.76, p<0.03). From this it was concluded that further investigation of the effects of pulses on breast cancer was warranted.

The Four-Corners Breast Cancer study also reported a relationship between pulse consumption and reduced breast cancer risk in which breast cancer incidence in Hispanic women who consumed a native Mexican diet (characterized by high pulse intake) was two thirds that of non-Hispanic white population whose diet was characterized as high in red meat, sugar, and processed foods (3).

My laboratory decided to pursue these observations in a preclinical model for breast cancer. We did this not only because of the epidemiological findings but also because pulses, such as common bean, are a stable food crop for many regions of the world where they are eaten in large quantities on a daily basis as a rich source of protein, resistant starch, and dietary fiber (4). Common bean is quite distinct from soybeans which are an oil seed legume and generally are not used as a staple food crop (5).

Moreover, whereas common bean is consumed in quantities up to 360g dry weight per day in some regions of the world, typical consumption in the United States is less than 10g dry weight per day and less than 7% of the U.S. population eats common bean on any given day (6, 7). Thus, common bean, consumed as a food, could represent an immediately available, affordable approach that is not widely used for cancer prevention.

Our laboratory has reported a pre-clinical investigation in which it was shown that incorporation of cooked, canned, freeze-dried common bean powder, into a purified laboratory diet, caused a remarkable inhibition of the post initiation stage of chemically induced mammary carcinogenesis in a well characterized model for breast cancer (8). Cancer inhibitory activity was bean dose dependent and observed at dietary concentrations similar to those recommended in the United States food guide pyramid but that are not usually attained in the majority of the population in the United States (9) .

Our initial work was extended to address the question of whether distinct gene pools of common bean, which are referred to as market classes (10), differed in their cancer inhibitory activity in the same model system for breast cancer and it was observed that the magnitude of cancer inhibitory activity depended on the genetic heritage of common bean and that cancer inhibitory activity was not associated with seed coat pigment (11). Given the congruence of our observations with not only the NHS-II and Four Corners studies, but also several other epidemiological and laboratory studies evaluating the effect of dietary factors on colon cancer (12-14) or prostate cancer (15, 16) in which reduced cancer risk was found to be associated with increased common bean consumption,

I now recommend daily bean consumption as a simple, affordable lifestyle habit that could reduce cancer risk while improving food security and creating a sustainable global ecology.

About the author: Henry J. Thompson, PhD is professor in the College of Agricultural Sciences and director of the Cancer Prevention Laboratory at Colorado State University in Fort Collins, Colorado. From 1988 to 2002 he was the head of the Center for Nutrition in the Prevention of Disease at AMC Cancer Research Center, Denver, Colorado. Working with several medical oncologists, Thompson currently directs a clinical research program in which various lifestyle interventions are being investigated in women at risk for breast cancer and in breast cancer survivors.

 

References

(1) Correa P. Epidemiological correlations between diet and cancer frequency. Cancer Res 1981;41:3685-90.
(2) Adebamowo CA, Cho E, Sampson L, Katan MB, Spiegelman D, Willett WC, et al. Dietary flavonols and flavonol-rich foods intake and the risk of breast cancer. Int J Cancer 2005;114:628-33.
(3) Murtaugh MA, Sweeney C, Giuliano AR, Herrick JS, Hines L, Byers T, et al. Diet patterns and breast cancer risk in Hispanic and non-Hispanic white women: the Four-Corners Breast Cancer Study. American Journal of Clinical Nutrition 2008;87:978-84.
(4) Geil PB, Anderson JW. Nutrition and health implications of dry beans: a review. J Am Coll Nutr 1994;13.
(5) Gepts P. Crop domestication as a long-term selection experiment. Plant Breeding Reviews 2004;24:1-44.
(6) Economic Research Service. Food Availability. USDA; 2007.
(7) Mitchell DC, Lawrence FR, Hartman TJ, Curran JM. Consumption of dry beans, peas, and lentils could improve diet quality in the US population. J Am Diet Assoc 2009;109:909-13.
(8) Thompson MD, Thompson HJ, Brick MA, McGinley JN, Jiang W, Zhu Z, et al. Mechanisms associated with dose-dependent inhibition of rat mammary carcinogenesis by dry bean (Phaseolus vulgaris, L.). J Nutr 2008;138:2091-7.
(9) U.S.Department of Health and Human Services. Dietary Guidelines for Americans. www.healthierus.gov/dietaryguidelines: U.S. Department of Agriculture; 2005.
(10) Singh S.P., Gutierrez JA, Molin A, Urrea C, Gepts P. Genetic diversity in cultivated common bean: iimarker-based analysis of morphological and agronomic traits. Crop Sci 1991;31:23-9.
(11) Thompson MD, Brick MA, McGinley JN, Thompson HJ. Chemical Composition and Mammary Cancer Inhibitory Activity of Dry Bean. Crop Sci 2009;49:179-86.
(12) Bobe G, Barrett KG, Mentor-Marcel RA, Saffiotti U, Young MR, Colburn NH, et al. Dietary cooked navy beans and their fractions attenuate colon carcinogenesis in azoxymethane-induced ob/ob mice. Nutr Cancer 2008;60:373-81.
(13) Lanza E, Hartman TJ, Albert PS, Shields R, Slattery M, Caan B, et al. High dry bean intake and reduced risk of advanced colorectal adenoma recurrence among participants in the polyp prevention trial. J Nutr 2006;136:1896-903.
(14) Mentor-Marcel RA, Bobe G, Barrett KG, Young MR, Albert PS, Bennink MR, et al. Inflammation-associated serum and colon markers as indicators of dietary attenuation of colon carcinogenesis in ob/ob mice. Cancer Prev Res (Phila Pa) 2009;2:60-9.
(15) Mills PK, Beeson WL, Phillips RL, Fraser GE. Cohort study of diet, lifestyle, and prostate cancer in Adventist men. Cancer 1989;64:598-604.
(16) Kolonel LN, Hankin JH, Whittemore AS, Wu AH, Gallagher RP, Wilkens LR, et al. Vegetables, fruits, legumes and prostate cancer: a multiethnic case-control study. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2000;9:795-804.