The goal of this clinical trial is to learn whether daily intake of lactic acid bacteria fermented or unfermented legumes can improve metabolic and gut health in healthy adults.
The main questions it aims to answer are:
* Does eating 100 g per day of legumes for 2 weeks lower blood glucose, measured primarily by continuous glucose monitoring, compared with a control period of habitual diet?
* Does eating 100 g per day of legumes for 2 weeks improve inflammation, cholesterol, gut microbiome composition, and short-chain fatty acid (SCFA) levels, and do fermented legumes have additional effects on body composition compared with unfermented legumes? Researchers will compare participants consuming LAB-fermented legumes with participants consuming unfermented legumes to see if fermented legumes produce greater health benefits, particularly for body composition and other metabolic outcomes.
Participants will:
* Follow their habitual diet for 14 days during a control period.
* Complete baseline measurements after the control period.
* Be randomly assigned to consume 100 g per day of either LAB-fermented or unfermented legumes for 14 days.
* Eat the provided standardized legume foods as part of their usual meals.
* Undergo continuous glucose monitoring and other assessments, incl. inflammation, cholesterol, long-term blood glucose, blood pressure, body composition, fecal microbiome, dietary intake, and digestive symptoms.