Cholesterol and Magic Beans

Been fighting high cholesterol for several years. Found something that
lowered it drastically. A pound of beans a day!

6/04 11/04 3/05 5/05
----- ---- ---- ---- ----
Chol 252 278 291 159
HDL 81 71 93 33
LDL 161 197 187 105
TG 51 51 56 105
Ch/H 3.11 3.92 3.13 4.82
FBG 86 86 88
A1C 5.4 5.5 5.6
hsCRP na na <0.2

Daily diet prior to:
06/04 - Almost all veges and quite a bit of it raw.
11/04 - Lots of low-carb veges, 15 egg whites, few fruits.
03/05 - Increased veges and added back more fruits. 12 egg whites.
05/05 - Almost 1 lb of various beans + 4 TBS brown rice. Lots of veges.
2 or 3 fruits. 1 egg white. 1 TBS Flaxseeds. A few nuts occasionally.
Dropped 3 TBS EVOO or EVCO.

Can someone explain the mechanism that caused the reduction? My
friends, doctors and pharmacuetal ads lead me to believe that diet
wasn't going to make much difference as the liver would compensate.
Should I and how can I increase HDL (or lower LDL and TG) without
raising total cholesterol? TIA

.