Dan Buettner has spent years studying the world's longest-living people
15:11, 12 Mar 2025
Dan Buettner
Dan Buettner said beans had been eaten by man for 13,000 years(Image: Zoe/MirrorOnline)
Longevity expert Dan Buettner has identified a 'superfood' that could potentially extend your life expectancy by four years, according to his extensive research into regions where people enjoy exceptionally long and healthy lives. Known for his work on blue zones - areas where the average lifespan far exceeds the global average - Buettner says beans can be the foundation of a healthy diet.
He argues that beans are not only nutrient-dense and perfectly suited for human consumption but also affordable, environmentally friendly, and have been a dietary staple for approximately 13,000 years.
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Buettner said: "Beans are the ultimate longevity food. Packed with protein, fibre, and complex carbs, they're a staple in every long-living culture."
"One study even found that eating a cup of beans a day could add four extra years to your life. No supplement can do that. If you want to live longer, eat what humans have thrived on for thousands of years."
The scientific community appears to back up Buettner's claims. A study from 2001 involving 9632 men and women found a 'significant inverse relationship between legume intake and risk of CHD (coronary heart disease)' and suggested that increasing legume consumption could play a crucial role in preventing CHD within the general population, reports Bristol Live.
Cardiovascular disease often goes hand in hand with conditions such as dyslipidemia, hypertension, type-2 diabetes, chronic inflammation, and obesity. However, research has shown that beans can help reduce cholesterol and blood sugar levels, protect against cancer, and assist in weight management.
These humble legumes are packed with protein and fibre, which can keep you feeling satisfied for longer periods. They are also a rich source of copper, folic acid, iron, magnesium, and vitamin B6.
Beans have a low glycemic index score, meaning they do not cause blood sugar levels to spike and crash like foods made with refined grains or added sugars do.
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But which bean is the healthiest?
All beans offer health benefits, but different types provide different advantages. Lentils, for example, are rich in polyphenols - plant-based compounds with anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties that can protect your body against diabetes, heart disease, and certain types of cancer.
Just half a cup of lentils provides 115 calories, 20g of carbohydrate, 9g of protein, 0g of saturated fat, and 8g of fibre. Considering more than 90 per cent of Brits fail to consume enough fibre each day, and 8g represents almost 30 per cent of our suggested daily target, it is clear we could all benefit from adding more lentils to our diet.
White beans, including cannellini beans and butter beans, are particularly high in potassium, calcium, folate, and iron. Black beans, on the other hand, are packed with vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants, as well as being rich in protein and fibre.
Chickpeas, also known as garbanzo beans, are packed with fibre, protein, and folate, which is particularly crucial for women trying to conceive. Red kidney beans, a UK favourite especially when whipped up with chilli, are an excellent source of plant-based iron.
Even the humble baked bean has its place in a nutritious diet. Typically made from white beans like haricot or cannellini, they're dished up in a tangy tomato sauce seasoned with spices such as paprika and onion powder, not forgetting salt and sugar.
It's best to pair them with veggies, but be mindful of their salt and sugar content. On average, half a can of store-bought baked beans may pack about 9g of sugar (10% of the daily reference intake) and up to 1.3g of salt, roughly 20% of the daily reference intake.
"Beans are the cornerstone of every longevity diet in the world. Why? They are complex carbohydrates, they are full of protein, and they have a lot of fibre," Buettner remarked. "They are cheap, people in blue zones know how to make them taste delicious, they are sustainable, they grow sustainably, and there is one very good study that followed a lot of people for decades, and they found that the more beans people ate, the longer they lived.
"The rough equivalency is if you are eating a cup of beans a day and you start young enough, it's worth about four extra years of life expectancy. And I don't know of any pill or any supplement or any superfood on Instagram that's going to give you an extra four years of life expectancy.
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"Beans have been around humans for 13,000 years. I find that if you pay attention to what we evolved with, it's usually a pretty good prescriptive for what we should do if we want to be around longer."