Beans, beans are good for your heart -- and that's not just part of a song; it is the truth. Kidney beans provide your body with many of the building blocks you need to maintain good health. Kidney beans also have specific benefits for your heart and digestive health. They are a cheap and convenient way to improve your diet and your health.

Kidney beans are a good source of fibre providing 6 grams of fibre per 1/2 cup, according to the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention. Fibre comes in two forms, soluble and insoluble, and kidney beans provide both. Soluble fibre helps reduce the amount of cholesterol you absorb from food, and insoluble fibre provides necessary bulk for good digestive health and bowel movements, notes the MedlinePlus Medical Encyclopaedia. The CDC recommends that you drink more fluids when you start to consume more kidney beans or other legumes, to help your digestive track properly utilize the additional fibre

Health benefits

Kidney beans are an excellent source of iron and provide vitamin C and vitamin A, among other nutrients your body needs for overall health. They also provide folate, which is important for good heart health, according to the University of Nebraska Cooperative Extension. Folate is especially important for women who are pregnant or planning to become pregnant since receiving adequate amounts of folate during pregnancy lowers the risk of certain birth defects.

Kidney beans are a good source of protein, but the type of protein they provide is incomplete, reports the CDC. It is important to also include whole grains in your diet because the type of protein in whole grains forms a complete protein when combined with the protein from kidney beans and other legumes. This source of protein is particularly good for you because it doesn't have the saturated fats and cholesterol that many other protein sources contain, such as red meats. This gives your heart health another healthy boost from kidney beans.

A Fibre All Star: Check a chart of the fibre content in foods and you'll see legumes leading the pack. Kidney beans, like other beans, are rich in soluble and insoluble fibre. Soluble fibre forms a gel-like substance in the digestive tract that binds with bile (which contains cholesterol)and ferries it out of the body. Research studies have shown that insoluble fibre not only helps to increase stool bulk and prevent constipation, but also helps prevent digestive disorders like irritable bowel syndrome and diverticulosis.

Lower Your Heart Attack Risk: In a study that examined food intake patterns and risk of death from coronary heart disease, researchers followed more than 16,000 middle-aged men in the U.S., Finland, The Netherlands, Italy, former Yugoslavia, Greece and Japan for 25 years. Typical food patterns were: higher consumption of dairy products in Northern Europe; higher consumption of meat in the U.S.; higher consumption of vegetables, legumes, fish, and wine in Southern Europe; and higher consumption of cereals, soy products, and fish in Japan. When researchers analysed this data in relation to the risk of death from heart disease, they found that higher legume consumption was associated with a whopping 82% reduction in risk!

Kidney beans' contribution to heart health lies not just in their fibre, but in the significant amounts of folate and magnesium these beans supply. Folate helps lower levels of homocysteine, an amino acid that is an intermediate product in an important metabolic process called the methylation cycle. Elevated blood levels of homocysteine are an independent risk factor for heart attack, stroke, or peripheral vascular disease, and are found in between 20-40% of patients with heart disease. It has been estimated that consumption of 100% of the daily value (DV) of folate would, by itself, reduce the number of heart attacks suffered by Americans each year by 10%. Kidney beans are a very good source of folate.

Kidney beans' good supply of magnesium puts yet another plus in the column of its beneficial cardiovascular effects. Magnesium is Nature's own calcium channel blocker. When there is enough magnesium around, veins and arteries breathe a sigh of relief and relax, which lessens resistance and improves the flow of blood, oxygen and nutrients throughout the body. Studies show that a deficiency of magnesium is not only associated with heart attack but that immediately following a heart attack, lack of sufficient magnesium promotes free radical injury to the heart. Want to literally keep your heart happy?

Give You Energy to Burn While Stabilizing Blood Sugar: In addition to its beneficial effects on the digestive system and the heart, soluble fibre helps stabilize blood sugar levels. If you have insulin resistance, hypoglycaemia or diabetes, kidney beans can really help you balance blood sugar levels while providing steady, slow-burning energy. Studies of high fibre diets and blood sugar levels have shown the dramatic benefits provided by these high fibre foods. Researchers compared two groups of people with type 2 diabetes who were fed different amounts of high fibre foods. One group ate the standard American Diabetic diet, which contained 24 grams of fibre/day, while the other group ate a diet containing 50 grams of fibre/day. Those who ate the diet higher in fibre had lower levels of both plasma glucose (blood sugar) and insulin (the hormone that helps blood sugar get into cells). The high fibre group also reduced their total cholesterol by nearly 7%, their triglyceride levels by 10.2% and their VLDL (Very Low Density Lipoprotein—the most dangerous form of cholesterol) levels by 12.5%.

Iron for Energy: In addition to providing slow burning complex carbohydrates, kidney beans can increase your energy by helping to replenish your iron stores. Particularly for menstruating women, who are more at risk for iron deficiency, boosting iron stores with kidney beans is a good idea—especially because, unlike red meat, another source of iron, kidney beans are low in calories and virtually fat-free. Iron is an integral component of haemoglobin, which transports oxygen from the lungs to all body cells, and is also part of key enzyme systems for energy production and metabolism. And remember: If you're pregnant or lactating, your needs for iron increase. Growing children and adolescents also have increased needs for iron.

Maintain Your Memory with Thiamin (Vitamin B1): Thiamin participates in enzymatic reactions central to energy production and is also critical for brain cell/cognitive function. This is because thiamin is needed for the synthesis of acetylcholine, the important neurotransmitter essential for memory and whose lack has been found to be a significant contributing factor in age-related impairment in mental function (senility) and Alzheimer's disease. Alzheimer's disease is clinically characterized by a decrease in acetylcholine levels.

Manganese for Energy Production and Antioxidant Defence: Kidney beans are a good source of the trace mineral manganese which is an essential cofactor in a number of enzymes important in energy production and antioxidant defences. For example, the key oxidative enzyme superoxide dismutase, which disarms free radicals produced within the mitochondria (the energy production factories within our cells), requires manganese.

Protein Power Plus: If you're wondering how to replace red meat in your menus, become a fan of kidney beans. These hearty beans are a good source of protein, and when combined with a whole grain such as whole wheat pasta or brown rice provide protein comparable to that of meat or dairy foods without the high calories or saturated fat found in these foods. And, when you get your protein from kidney beans, you also get the blood sugar stabilizing and heart health benefits of the soluble fibre provided by these versatile legumes. A cup of kidney beans provides over 15 grams of protein.