Apart from their musical impact, beans really are good for you - your cholesterol and cardiovascular system, that is. Agricultural researchers (who may have had a bean to grind) wanted to see whether consumption of beans altered colon chemistry in a direction that might lower the risk of colon cancer. They also measured blood lipids, and it turned out that these results were more interesting than the colon chemistry.

Writing in the Journal of Nutrition, they described results from 40 healthy controls and 40 'pre-metabolic syndrome' adults after eating either a bean entrée or a chicken soup entree for 12 weeks. Bean consumption was associated with an 8% reduction of total serum cholesterol in the controls, and 4% reduction in the pre-metabolic syndrome subjects.

Unfortunately, both the bad cholesterol ( LDL -C) and the good ( HDL -C) were reduced in both groups of volunteers; the scientists can't offer an explanation for this. And the original goal of the study - to show a possible benefit of bean-eating on the risk of colon cancer - proved unsuccessful. However, the principal author of the study, Dr John Finley, has now joined A.M.Todd Inc., a therapeutic botanical company.