Today I want to tell you about something you probably don’t know… it’s an easy, natural way of preventing fat gain.
Normally your body takes carbohydrate and makes fat from it. But there’s something you can use to prevent the carbs from being transformed into fat, and helps you eliminate them without making body fat.
What am I talking about?
It’s the white kidney bean.
When a team of researchers gave a concentrated form of white kidney bean to people not on a diet, it made the people drop pounds as if they were restricting their calories.
This white kidney bean extract also has the effect of preventing fat gain from eating too many starchy and processed foods.
White kidney bean can even help maintain healthy triglycerides and blood sugar over time.
How does it work? Well, have you ever eaten a bland, grainy, or starchy food, yet after chewing it for a minute it tastes sweet? That’s an enzyme called alpha-amylase starting to break down the starch into its simplest form – sugars. That’s what you taste.
After these foods pass through your stomach into your intestines, your body hits them with more alpha-amylase.
This is where white kidney bean comes helps you so much.
It reduces alpha-amylase. So your body can’t turn the starches into sugar. And they pass through before they get stored as fat.
That means when you take white kidney bean extract, the starchy foods never make it to your stomach, thighs, and hips. And they don’t turn into love handles.
Even better, non-starch carbs like fruits and vegetables are not affected at all. So you get all the nutrients and fiber and none of the body fat.
In one new study researchers randomly gave one group of people white kidney bean extract and others
a placebo. Those taking white kidney bean extract lost over 6 pounds without changing their lifestyles at all in any other way.The researchers also followed up to see if the people could maintain their weight loss. 73.5% of people were able to keep the weight off, even without dietary restrictions. 1
Another study gave one group of people white kidney bean extract every day for 30 days, and another group got a placebo. On average, the people in the white kidney bean group: 2
- lost over 5 pounds of body fat (over 6 pounds of body weight)
- lost 3 inches off their waists
- lost 2 inches off their hips
- lost an inch off each thigh
- maintained their lean body mass
More importantly, the researchers wrote that with white kidney bean extract, “the major weight changes are brought about … by fat loss.” That means the people weren’t losing water weight or organ weight, which can happen on a restrictive diet.
And that’s good, because you want fat loss, not water loss. And that’s what you get with white kidney bean.
The prestigious British Medical Journal looked at ALL studies on white kidney bean to determine just how much fat people were losing. The BMJ found that white kidney bean does make a significant difference in fat loss compared with a placebo.3
Plus, an Australian research team discovered that white kidney bean is an appetite suppressant. 4
So there’s a lot of compelling evidence that shows white beans block starch digestion and can help reduce starches from being deposited as fat, and even help reduce cravings.
Despite that, I’ve seen some “experts” try to tell you that blocking carb absorption is bad. They say it will block the absorption of nutrients.
But here’s the thing… there are no nutrients in the processed, carb-heavy foods that white kidney bean extract blocks. You’re not missing anything.
The sad thing is that processed, carb-heavy foods make up almost all the food choices you’re presented with. And that occasional meal of bread, pasta, potatoes, and other starches will slowly put on the extra fat over time … unless you take a white kidney bean extract.
White kidney bean interrupts and reverses the fat-gaining effects of starch.
So where can you get it and how do you use it?
You can buy dried white kidney beans – which are also called cannellini beans – in bulk at a health-food store. I don’t recommend canned beans because of the estrogenic chemicals used to line the cans.
My favorite way to eat white kidney beans is to make minestrone soup. Then I can add meat and vegetables. Plus, beans absorb other flavors, making the whole thing tastier. You can also find good recipes at my colleague Dr. Weil’s website drweil.com. Chow.com also has a great white bean and chard stew recipe.
To get the full carb-eliminating effect, you’ll want to take white kidney bean extract. Start with 500 mg twice a day. Take it 15 or 20 minutes before you eat. As always, make sure you get the extract from a reputable company that has had their product vigorously tested for purity to insure there are no contaminants.
To Your Good Health,
Al Sears, MD
1. Grube B, Chong W, Chong P, Riede L. “Weight reduction and maintenance with IQP-PV-101: A 12-week randomized controlled study with a 24-week open label period.” Obesity. 2013. Epub ahead of print.
2. Celleno L, et. al. “A Dietary Supplement Containing Standardized Phaseolus vulgaris Extract Influences Body Composition of Overweight Men and Women.” Int J Med Sci 2007; 4(1):45-52.
3. Onakpoya I, Aldaas S, Terry R, Ernst E. “The efficacy of Phaseolus vulgaris as a weight-loss supplement: a systematic review and meta-analysis of randomised clinical trials.” Br J Nutr. 2011;106(2):196-202.
4. Astell K, Mathai M, Su X. “A review on botanical species and chemical compounds with appetite suppressing properties for body weight control.” Plant Foods Hum Nutr. 2013;68(3):213-21.