Bean Consumption Accounts for Differences in Body Fat and Waist Circumference: A Cross-Sectional Study of 246 Women

Table 3

Mean differences in body fat percentage and waist circumference across tertiles of legume intake in women (n = 246).

	Bean intake tertiles
Outcome	Low	Moderate	High	F
Covariate	Mean ± SD	Mean ± SD	Mean ± SD
Body fat percentage
None	34.7^a±6.8	31.8^b ± 7.1	30.9^b ± 7.4	6.2	0.0023
Age	34.7^a	31.7^b	31.0^b	6.4	0.0019
Age, energy intake	34.7^a	31.7^b	31.0^b	6.3	0.0022
Age, PA	34.8^a	31.7^b	30.9^b	7.7	0.0006
Age, PA, energy intake, educ	34.4^a	31.2^b	30.6^b	7.4	0.0008
Waist circumference (cm)
None	85.2^a ± 9.4	81.8^b ± 10.6	81.1^b ± 10.3	3.8	0.0230
Age	85.2^a	81.8^b	81.1^b	3.9	0.0209
Age, energy intake	85.1^a	81.8^b	81.3^b	3.6	0.0278
Age, PA	85.3^a	81.7^b	81.1^b	4.3	0.0142
Age, PA, energy intake, educ	84.4^a	80.8^b	80.5^b	4.2	0.0164

^a,bMeans on the same row with different superscript letters were significantly different (). SD = standard deviation. PA = physical activity. Educ = education level. Tertiles were based on cups of beans consumed per 1000 kcal. There were 82 subjects in each tertile. Means on the same row as the covariate(s) were adjusted for the covariate(s).