Black Beans - ridiculous question

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  • hgillesp
    hgillesp Posts: 46 Member
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    Type in black beans - rinsed and drained into the database when you enter your food in your diary. That will be accurate.

    Whoever put those in didn't weigh the beans after they drained them. They just assumed that the liquid wasn't included in the weight per serving. This is really the craziest thing. I will eat black beans tomorrow and measure everything out so I can provide more accurate information...:ohwell:
  • sam456
    sam456 Posts: 52 Member
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    I had wondered the same thing.... not sure about that-- on a side note, I found some yummy black bean spaghetti-- made only from black beans and water. Anybody looking for lower carb options might be interested! If you cant find them at a local health food store, you can def. find them online :)




    -sam456
    http://happyheartrecipes.blogspot.com/
  • GypsyWagon
    GypsyWagon Posts: 82 Member
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    That's one thing I dislike about the nutrition labels. They can make the label info be for a given size... say your 1/2 cup example but the package contains 1 and 1/4 cups of beans so without some quick math you can't "portion" 3 portions out of it, not if you want to use their 1/2 cup size anyway. My solution is to split it into 1/3 portions and just track it as if it was 3 full 1/2 cups over estimating the calorie intake a bit. That said try buying dried beans, you can cut way back on the sodium that way and just have to "plan" ahead by knowing the night before you want to use them to set beans to soak.

    I cook and then drain and freeze in "can sized" portions now. They thaw pretty quickly. Not as convenient as cans...but, no sodium or BPA to deal with.
  • verysmallrocks
    verysmallrocks Posts: 9
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    I wasn't even worried about this before, but I sure am now... lol
  • Cytherea
    Cytherea Posts: 515 Member
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    Here's how I see this... taking into consideration that since the weight only works out accurately when you include the liquid when measuring the contents of the can (as you stated), assume that the liquid is included in the calories/serving size. If you do use the liquid, then what you record is accurate. If you don't, then you'll just be a little bit under what you recorded that day- which is really no big deal. Chances are, it will only be by a few calories, since the beans (or tuna or whatever) themselves are what have most of the calories in them, not the liquid. Even if it is 50 calories in a can, like someone else suggested, being 50 calories or less under is not going to hurt you. Personally, I'd rather overestimate and record MORE than ate than fool myself by trying to deduct the liquid and end up underestimating and eating too much. There will be days where you do underestimate and go over by a few calories, and days where you know you've gone over- so the times when you are under because you drained the beans you can just look at as helping to counteract those days. :wink:
  • JunkFoodJane
    JunkFoodJane Posts: 150 Member
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    I cook and then drain and freeze in "can sized" portions now. They thaw pretty quickly. Not as convenient as cans...but, no sodium or BPA to deal with.

    Was going to suggest this.


    Read the label- if it's something caloric they're stored in, then measure and deduct that amount. If it's water, the calories should be negligible. Like, -4 per serving. Just whatever bean material gets washed away. Beans have a good deal of calories. It's ok :)
  • Tonys619
    Tonys619 Posts: 1
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    This is funny, because it has stumped me for a while. I rely on black beans when I diet because they fill me up and are rich sources of proteins when combined with rice. The confusion is lies with the fact that the entire bag of beans dry has a given number of calories that you can easily count. When you cook these beans your volume changes depending on how much water they soak up. If I measure the cooked product out by cup and go with the nutritional content, the math simply does not add up, It would appear that I am able to create energy out of nothing! (Kcal). What has worked for me is to cook the whole bag, weigh the entire finished product (drained) and divide it into equal portions based on weight. Then divide the entire nutritional data of the dry product by the number of equal finished portions for my final count. Failure to do this has left me starving and with an unexplainable number of servings left over. Cheers!

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