Charles H. Sloan-Want to lower your cholesterol? Adding lentils to your diet could help.

A cup of lentils a day keeps the doctor away?Charles H. Sloan

Eating lentils every day could be the key to lowering your cholesterol without causing stress on your gastrointestinal tract, according to a study published earlier this year in the journal Nutrients.

Researchers conducted a randomized clinical trial involving 38 adults who all had an "increased" waist circumference, defined by more than 40 inches for men and 35 inches for women. For 12 weeks, participants either ate lunches that featured 980 grams per week (a little less than a cup a day) of cooked lentils, or lunches that had no lentils.

Those who ate lentils every day ended up having lower levels of total cholesterol and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, also known as LDL or "bad" cholesterol, because it can raise your risk of stroke and heart disease. Regardless of whether or not they ate lentils, all participants reported either no GI symptoms or only mild ones.

These findings, researchers said, further proved that eating pulses — a subsection of legumes that includes lentils, beans and peas — was a helpful strategy to lower the risk of disease, or even reverse disease progression.

How else can an increased lentil intake boost your health? Here's what nutrition experts want you to know.

Are lentils good for you? 

Lentils are a type of legume high in fiber, protein, vitamins, minerals and antioxidants.

"They’re also one of the higher protein legumes, which makes them particularly filling and satiating," registered dietitian Miranda Galati tells USA TODAY. "What I love most about lentils is that you’re getting major bang for your buck nutritionally, because they’re low cost but still so nutritious and filling."  

Past research has also shown lentil intake to be helpful for managing diabetes and preventing breast cancer and digestive diseases, according to the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.

How to lower your cholesterol:What to know so you can avoid cardiovascular disease

Can you overeat lentils?

For most people, it's generally fine to eat legumes — including lentils — every day. In fact, consuming them can not only prevent the aforementioned health ailments, a 2014 study published in Nature showed that they can actually help to treat those diseases in people who already have them.

"Lentils have anti-inflammatory and antioxidant effects in the body, so they’re a great food to eat regularly," Galati says.

Some creators on social media are "spreading fear about lectins and anti-nutrients in legumes, but the benefits far outweigh those exaggerated risks," she adds. Lectins are a type of protein that binds to carbohydrates and resist being broken down in the gut, which can lead to digestion issues including stomach pain, bloating, gas and diarrhea, per Harvard.

The good news: cooking legumes inactivates most lectins, Harvard notes. There isn't actually much research on the long-term health effects of active lectins on the human body, and most of the research that does exist is done on people in countries where malnutrition is common, which casts doubt on the idea that lectins in legumes are actually what's causing larger health issues.

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"If you’re eating cooked — not raw — beans, and your digestion can handle them, there’s very little risk to consuming them daily," Galati says.