Lupin flour lowers BP and reduces heart disease risk
We can lower our risk of heart disease significantly, just by using flour containing 40 per cent lupin beans in the place of conventional wholemeal flour, according to research by Victoria University dietitian Dr Regina Belski and colleagues from The University of Western Australia.
Over the course of a year, working with the Centre for Food and Genomic Medicine in Perth, researchers monitored more than 100 overweight, but otherwise healthy, Western Australian men and women, to whom they provided everyday foods made either with wholemeal flour or incorporating lupin flour.
“Consuming lupin flour lowered blood pressure and reduced the risk of heart disease,” Dr Belski said. “It’s as simple as that.”
The work is being presented for the first time in public through Fresh Science, a communication boot-camp for early career scientists held at the Melbourne Museum. Dr Belski was one of 16 winners from across Australia.
Lupins are legumes often grown ornamentally in gardens for their flowers, but their beans have been eaten since Roman times. About 80 per cent of the world’s commercial lupin crop is produced in Western Australia, where it conditions the soil, and is sold for livestock feed.
Dr Belski said there had been renewed interest in using lupin flour in regular foods, because of its unique high protein, high fibre composition and its ability to be incorporated easily into typical food products such as bread. But the West Australian Country Womens’ Association produced a cookbook of recipes using lupin flour decades ago.
Those taking part in the study were put on a weight loss diet and split into two groups. For a year, one group ate food incorporating the 40 per cent lupin flour, and the other foods made solely with wholemeal flour. During the course of the experiment, Dr Belski and her team monitored heart disease risk factors, including blood pressure, and the level of fats, sugar and insulin in the blood.
The food provided to participants during the study included bread, pasta and biscuits. The researchers found that while both the lupin group and the wholemeal group lost similar amounts of weight, the lupin group displayed bigger improvements in several heart disease risk factors.
“So simply consuming foods incorporating lupin flour can improve heart health in overweight people at higher risk of heart disease,” Dr Belski said.
The study suggested that lupin flour might also be good for those suffering from Type 2 or adult onset diabetes, because even non-diabetic individuals’ sensitivity to insulin improved during the trial.
Dr Belski said commercial food manufacturers in WA had already begun making and selling products which incorporate lupin flour.
Dr Belski’s publication, “Effects of lupin-enriched foods on body composition and cardiovascular disease risk factors: a 12-month randomized controlled weight loss trial” is published in the International Journal of Obesity, 2010.
I refer to your article aboout Lupin Flour helping to reduce BP and other risks of Metabolic syndrome associated with overweight.
There are a number of products now on the national and international market being agressively promoted for their low to no carb and high protein content claiming to be of benefit to general health but particularly aiding in the battle of the bulge.These products are readily available and are not only well sought after but have been incorporoted in many health conscious people’s diets, this providing bountiful success to the providers and distributors of these products which are being sourced from overseas producers.
Why is it that a products like Lupin Flour are not being promoted at this level in Australia, when Western Australia according to your article produces 80% of the international markets’ needs?
I’ve been trying to get my hands on Lupin Flour or nay of the related products in Queensland without much success, and have been left with the only options of either buying in bulk from WA and having to pay postage, or having to pay exorbitant prices for a Lupin flour with wheat flour loaf of bread from some little boutique health food shops her and there that sometimes stock it in the freezer! I’d love you to inform us more on accessability of Lupin flour and and the WA’s CWA’s cok book, PLEASE.