Eating baked beans could help you lose weight.
Baked beans can aid weight loss
Chinese researchers have found that tucking into meals such as beans on toast and jacket potatoes is beneficial for the waistline.
People who ate 40g of resistant starch - found in beans, chickpeas and lentils - on a daily basis lost 3kg over a period of eight weeks.
The team says that the carbohydrate is digested by healthy bacteria in the gut that enables the weight to be shed.
Professor Weiping Ja, of Shanghai Jiao Tong University School of Medicine, said: "We demonstrated that resistant starch can facilitate weight loss.
"The benefits of resistant starch are associated with changes in gut microbiota composition."
Resistant starch is a type of fibre that is not digested in the small intestine but provides fuel for the healthy bacteria in the lower bowel.
The top sources of resistant starch are wholegrain cereals and legumes including beans, lentils and peas.