Weighing/Measuring My Green Beans

go52182
go52182 Posts: 133 Member
in Food and Nutrition
So everything says that a food scale is the way to go over using a measuring cup. Here's the thing that's been frustrating me to no end so I thought I'd ask you guys. My canned greans beans state a serving size is 1/2 cup (120g) ... well 120g comes out to be WAY more than 1/2 cup! So which is correct??

Replies

  • go52182
    go52182 Posts: 133 Member
    edited January 2020
    Well that kinda tells me that my measuring cup is more accurate than weighing out the stated 120g, in this situation.

    Is every food label incorrect? I don't want to have to go to this site every time I need to log something new.
  • janejellyroll
    janejellyroll Posts: 25,763 Member
    Canned green beans are cooked, so I wouldn't use a raw USDA entry for them.

    When my measuring cup/spoon doesn't match the weight of an item, I go with the weight. Measuring cups/spoons can be packed differently and they're less reliable than weight.
  • go52182
    go52182 Posts: 133 Member
    That does make sense. I was frustrated because I wanted to weight out 2 servings. Weighing out 240g was like piling them on and on and on! I was like "what the heck this is SO much!!"

    And it seems impossible at 1/2 cup that there would be 3.5 servings in the can...
  • lemurcat2
    lemurcat2 Posts: 7,885 Member
    Usually the information on the can for canned stuff is undrained.

    Navy beans on the can = 1/2 cup (130 g) is 110 cal. USDA information has canned weighing 130 g at 147 g. The difference is the canned one includes water to make up the weight, so is fewer beans.

    Green beans are likely the same.

    I always use the USDA entry for canned beans, because it's too much of pain trying to get the measurements to work out otherwise.
  • Luke_rabbit
    Luke_rabbit Posts: 1,031 Member
    If we were eating canned green beans, I would do the following.

    Assumes we are splitting the can between 2 people, but can work with more.

    Drain, rinse if needed. Heat. Put all the beans on one tared plate. Move half to 2nd plate.

    Choose entry in MFP for entire container. Enter .5 of the container as my amount.

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