If you eat canned black beans...

tusher2011
tusher2011 Posts: 201 Member
edited September 28 in Food and Nutrition
...and drain them before you eat them, how do you record the sodium since draining reduces sodium? Just wondering if I should change it in my food diary or not. I want to eventually want to cook my own beans, but for now I am using canned. Thanks!

Replies

  • CaptainGordo
    CaptainGordo Posts: 4,437 Member
    Pretty sure there's a rinsed black beans entry in the food database. Try searching for: rinsed beans. Even if they end up only having pintos, it's close enough.

    Also, there's a refried beans without the refry in there somewhere. :laugh: Just smooshed beans, which are great!
  • sweet_lotus
    sweet_lotus Posts: 194 Member
    You could enter the nutritional information yourself, and put "(rinsed - no sodium)' in the title.
  • sweet_lotus
    sweet_lotus Posts: 194 Member
    Repeat post.
  • CaptainGordo
    CaptainGordo Posts: 4,437 Member
    You're not going to remove all of the sodium when you rinse them, so I don't know that adding your own post with 0 sodium would be accurate.

    But, then again... I don't know how accurate the rinsed beans entry already in the database is. Try Google for an answer.
  • jb83
    jb83 Posts: 38
    are you going over your sodium a lot? If it's not an issue and since your body only NEEDS 500mg of sodium a day, leave the sodium info as is!!! Who cause if you're recording more then you are actually eating (in regards to sodium)... you'll be way under your allotment thinking you're intaking more then you are ;-)
  • tusher2011
    tusher2011 Posts: 201 Member
    I have been looking online for an answer to my question and couldn't find it, so I asked here:)

    I do need to reduce my sodium by a little. My BP has been high lately, but my dr said the main things I need to do is lose weight and excerisce...which I have been doing. I
  • milaxx
    milaxx Posts: 1,122 Member
    Rinsing them doesn't really remove the sodium, or if it does it's only a negligible amount. I try and cook my own but when I do use canned beans, I just list them as is.
  • cmriverside
    cmriverside Posts: 34,454 Member
    Yeah, what milaxx said. The beans have already absorbed a lot of salt. Rinsing doesn't help much.

    It's cheaper and they taste so much better to buy them dried. Once you start buying dried you'll never go back :wink:
  • ChelseaRW
    ChelseaRW Posts: 366 Member
    Yeah, what milaxx said. The beans have already absorbed a lot of salt. Rinsing doesn't help much.

    It's cheaper and they taste so much better to buy them dried. Once you start buying dried you'll never go back :wink:

    I love black beans and just bought them dry...can you suggest us the best way to prepare them??? And to the OP...I just post mine as the label reads since we aren't really "rinsing" out the salt.
  • sweet_lotus
    sweet_lotus Posts: 194 Member
    Rinsing them doesn't really remove the sodium, or if it does it's only a negligible amount. I try and cook my own but when I do use canned beans, I just list them as is.

    I was always taught that beans don't take in as much sodium as say, meat, and that rinsing canned beans removed most of the sodium.

    But, there's nothing like a reliable source, so after some research I found this article.

    http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m0813/is_4_26/ai_54561197/

    "Rinse for a minute. We had an independent laboratory analyze the sodium content of three types of canned beans before and after we drained and rinsed them in a colander under running cold water for one minute. The results: On average, in the brands that started out with 230 mg to 360 mg of sodium, nearly a quarter of the sodium went down the drain. In brands that started out with 600 mg to 675 mg, rinsing washed away about a third of the sodium. That means you're still better off buying lower-sodium brands. But it's worth rinsing for a full minute, no matter which brand you buy."

    So, rinsing doesn't remove as much sodium as I was taught, but, 25-30% is a good amount. Hopefully the OP will read this!
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