Question about canned vs. cooking your own beans.

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AshlynG923
AshlynG923 Posts: 59 Member
in Food and Nutrition
When I look up the nutritional information for 112g of boiled black beans it says that there are roughly 150 calories. But then I look up 112g of canned black beans and it says there are around 100!

Basically they are the same, correct? Why the difference in calories? Are they including the icky liquid in the canned beans and that could contribute the lower calories count?

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  • tootoop224
    tootoop224 Posts: 281 Member
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    I think you must be right, but don;t know for sure. I am in to see others answers. And, btw, what is that "icky black stuff"? I always thought it was water plus some "bean juice", in which case, if you're not eating it, it's like not eating some of the beans listed in the nutrition info, right? I haven;t really figured out how to log canned beans when I rinse that stuff off, so I just log it as per the label. Probably a little high, but...
  • FourIsCompany
    FourIsCompany Posts: 269 Member
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    Basically, the canned beans have more water in them than dried beans (even after the dried beans are cooked), so 112 g. of canned beans contains fewer beans (and more water weight) than 112 g. of homemade beans. If you cook the homemade beans to death and let them sit around in a can of water for months, they would absorb more water and the numbers would be more comparable.
  • toddis
    toddis Posts: 941 Member
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    Also, look at the macros (protein, fat, carbs.). Some foods assume a home cook would use X amount of fat or whatever when preparing the item.
  • jonward85
    jonward85 Posts: 534 Member
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    Fourls is correct. If you counted the beans in the can vs 1 serving of dried that you're going to cook the number of beans will be different. However, at 40-50 per serving i wouldn't worry too much about it. I'd tell you to cook your own just because most of the canned beans have higher sodium content, but that's not a huge deal unless you have a medical reason to watch your salt.
  • AshlynG923
    AshlynG923 Posts: 59 Member
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    Thanks! It never occurred to me that the canned beans were probably loaded with liquid which increased their weight.

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