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

Table 4

Mean differences in body fat percentage and waist circumference across tertiles of bean and legume adherence, based on factor scores.

	Bean intake adherence
Outcome	Low	Moderate	High	F
Covariate	Mean ± SD	Mean ± SD	Mean ± SD
Body fat percentage
None	34.9^a ± 6.4	31.5^b ± 7.2	31.0^b ± 7.6	7.5	0.0007
Age	35.0^a	31.6^b	31.0^b	7.6	0.0006
Age, energy intake	35.0^a	31.5^b	30.9^b	8.1	0.0004
Age, PA	34.8^a	31.6^b	31.0^b	7.2	0.0009
Age, PA, energy intake, educ	34.5^a	31.2^b	30.6^b	7.9	0.0005
Waist circumference (cm)
None	85.1^a ± 9.4	81.7^b ± 10.7	81.4^b ± 10.2	3.3	0.0398
Age	85.1^a	81.7^b	81.4^b	3.3	0.0383
Age, energy intake	85.5^a	81.6^b	81.1^b	4.8	0.0094
Age, PA	85.3^a	81.7^b	81.1^b	3.0	0.0536
Age, PA, energy intake, educ	84.6^a	80.8^b	80.5^b	4.5	0.0118

^a,bMeans on the same row with different superscript letters were significantly different (). SD = standard deviation. PA = physical activity. Educ = education level. Categories were tertiles based on adherence to the dietary pattern associated with bean and legume consumption. The sample sizes were Tertile 1 (n = 81), Tertile 2 (n = 83), and Tertile 3 (n = 82). Means on the same row as the covariate(s) were adjusted for the covariate(s).