Lentils
One serving a day lowers your LDL, and that comes out of trials rather than a questionnaire.
Glycemic index
32
Low
Boiled. Pulses sit in the lowest group there is.
How to use it
As the main part of a meal, not as a garnish. Through a soup, as dal, cold through a salad with a sharp dressing.
The best version
Dry, from a pack with a date on it, because old lentils stay hard however long you boil them. Brown and green hold their shape, red ones collapse and are for soup.
How to prepare it
Lentils do not need soaking. Cook them without salt and add acid, such as lemon or vinegar, only once they are done: acid keeps the skin tough.
Combine with
Lemon or orange
Iron from a pulse is poorly absorbed. Vitamin C in the same meal lifts that absorption, so a squeeze of lemon belongs with it.
What it does
Twenty-six randomised trials with 1037 participants between them compared a diet with pulses against the same diet without, at the same calories. At a median of 130 grams a day, about one serving, LDL cholesterol fell by 0.17 mmol/L.
Watch out
The authors say themselves that longer trials of higher quality are needed. And the effect was on LDL: nothing was found on apolipoprotein B or non-HDL cholesterol.