Silly question about beans

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DirrtyH
DirrtyH Posts: 664 Member
edited February 2015 in Food and Nutrition
At least it seems silly to me. Maybe I'm overthinking it. But I gotta know.

According to my can of black beans, one serving is half a cup, or 130 grams. The can says there are 3.5 servings per can.

However, when I weigh out 130 grams on my scale, it's definitely more than half the can and appears to me to be more than half a cup.

So... am I eating a serving of black beans or am I eating, like, three servings and going over my calorie goals?

Replies

  • gamesandgains
    gamesandgains Posts: 640 Member
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    Go by the grams shown on the can. I only use a measuring cup to measure liquids.
  • sfbaumgarten
    sfbaumgarten Posts: 912 Member
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    Go by the scale. If you weigh out 130g, that's 130g. Doesn't matter how many servings the can claims to have because it will almost never be completely accurate. Weigh your solids, measure your liquids.
  • swampus99
    swampus99 Posts: 21 Member
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    Did you rinse the beans?
  • lynn_glenmont
    lynn_glenmont Posts: 9,986 Member
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    I think some (most?) canned beans include the weight of the liquid in the can, because not only are the servings way off from what the label claims, but the calories they say are in a serving are way too low if they were only counting the weight of the beans. I always drain the liquid and rinse the beans before weighing, then I use the generic entries for beans drawn from the USDA nutrition database (e.g., "beans - black beans, cooked, boiled, with salt" or "without salt," depending on whether I started with low sodium or no salt beans).
  • DirrtyH
    DirrtyH Posts: 664 Member
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    I drain some of the liquid out of the can before I cook them but I don't rinse them. I weigh them out after cooking.
  • weird_me2
    weird_me2 Posts: 716 Member
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    Your best bet in these cases would be to weigh the whole can after you drain and divide that by the total serving, because the 130 grams includes all the liquid they are packed with. Same goes for any canned food, really, unless it specifically says "drained".

    If you mostly drain your beans and end up with 245 grams, then each serving would only weigh 70 grams drained.
  • DirrtyH
    DirrtyH Posts: 664 Member
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    weird_me2 wrote: »
    Your best bet in these cases would be to weigh the whole can after you drain and divide that by the total serving, because the 130 grams includes all the liquid they are packed with. Same goes for any canned food, really, unless it specifically says "drained".

    If you mostly drain your beans and end up with 245 grams, then each serving would only weigh 70 grams drained.

    That's a good idea. Thank you!
  • MaryCS62
    MaryCS62 Posts: 266 Member
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    weird_me2 wrote: »
    Your best bet in these cases would be to weigh the whole can after you drain and divide that by the total serving, because the 130 grams includes all the liquid they are packed with. Same goes for any canned food, really, unless it specifically says "drained".

    If you mostly drain your beans and end up with 245 grams, then each serving would only weigh 70 grams drained.
    That's a good idea. I also like the one about draining, rinsing, measuring according to USDA, b/c I always drain & rinse to get off the "goop" & some of the sodium.
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
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    Get a digital food scale and weigh everything that is not liquid, log your food by weight in grams.
  • weird_me2
    weird_me2 Posts: 716 Member
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    deksgrl wrote: »
    Get a digital food scale and weigh everything that is not liquid, log your food by weight in grams.

    That's what OP was doing...her question was how to accurately measure/calculate her intake because the weighed amount seemed off.
  • deksgrl
    deksgrl Posts: 7,237 Member
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    weird_me2 wrote: »
    deksgrl wrote: »
    Get a digital food scale and weigh everything that is not liquid, log your food by weight in grams.

    That's what OP was doing...her question was how to accurately measure/calculate her intake because the weighed amount seemed off.

    Hahaha, yes, reading comprehension. I got distracted by something else apparently.

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