Drain the beans...

[Hokiefyd]

I am trying to estimate the nutritional numbers for a bean dish that my wife makes. I believe the information on the side of the can is for the entire contents of the can, including the salty solution. We drain the beans before adding them to the dish.

Anyone know by how much this reduces the sodium level from that can? For example, is 75% of the sodium in the brine? 50%?

If taken at face value, the total sodium content of this dish is over 5,600 mg, and when divided by seven 1-cup servings, it's over 800. I'm confident that there's really not that much sodium, but I don't know how much I can estimate is removed by draining the brine. Absolute accuracy is not important, just an order of magnitude really.

Thanks for any opinions/information on this.

 

[stephen9666]

Why don't you email the manufacturer? They may be able to tell you.

 

[mongo161]

If you want to remove most of the salt from the canned beans, try to empty the can into a collendar in the sink. Proceed to rinse the beans with cold tap water....shaking and moving the colander as the tap water is rinsing the beans.

No matter what brand of canned beans available, you can be sure that there is quite a bit of sodium/salt in the beans, along with that thick viscous liquid....like motor oil.

I prefer to cook my own beans using a Pressure Cooker. The beans cook fast, less energy used and taste much better cooked without salt. IMO...pick up a pressure cooker and surf the internet for recipes and timing schedules for all types of beans.

I go to the Miss Vicki, using a pressure cooker website for the cooking times for all my beans. Just cook your own beans since it healthier, cost less money for the bean and energy to cook the beans.....and its simple.

 

[JHZR2]

Good question. If sodium is a real concern you're probably best off to soak the beans after draining them. Soaking would help to defuse some of the Salt out of the bean structure. The beans are fully hydrated after all since they have been sitting in that brine for weeks or months.

 

[4D-56]

buying dry beans and soaking them is WAY better than buying canned stuff. As for the sodium thing, salt is as important to your body as oxygen and water, there is no life without salt.

Salt has got a bad rap because of the over consumption of de-natured, heat treated & bleached iodized salt, nobody should consume that. Instead of giving to the body, it takes away.

all we need is a pure organic sea salt and plenty of it. The "doctors" that tell you otherwise are missing the point and look to the broad term "salt" in "excess" as being the cause of some things we ail. wrong. when you buy salt, the only ingredient should be sea salt, anything else is store shelf decoration.

All canned food is acidic, has no life force and little to give to you.

Food either gives or it takes, avoid what takes.

my 2c.

 

[Hokiefyd]

Yeah, I'm not necessarily trying to reduce my intake of salt at this point, as much as I'm simply trying to get somewhat of a reasonable estimate of what I'm eating. For example, if draining the brine solution from the beans results in a 75% decrease in sodium from the entire contents of the can, that's a significant difference. If it's only 10%, for example, I at least know that what's printed on the label is about what we're consuming, even after draining.

I'll contact the manufacturer, though the answer may not be the same for each. We used, for example, three different brands of beans in this particular dish (it's a mix of different style of beans, like kidneys, northern white, etc).

 

[sciphi]

What about no-salt-added beans? I've switched over to using those since they're the same price or 10 cents more a can than full-salt beans.

 

[Mr_Incredible]

Originally Posted By: sciphi
What about no-salt-added beans? I've switched over to using those since they're the same price or 10 cents more a can than full-salt beans.


+1, what he said.

 

[CCS]

Drain and rinse to remove excess sodium.
Or cook your own and you can control the amount of salt added. You really don't need to any salt to your food, and about half the population is really only supposed to have 1500 mgs of sodium a day, or less than 3/4 tsp of salt.

This website is a good resource for nutritional composition of foods and food products: http://ndb.nal.usda.gov/

 

[djb]

Originally Posted By: stro_cruiser

all we need is a pure organic sea salt and plenty of it.


Salt gets a an overly-bad rap, but the statement above is nonsense.

Sea salt is neither pure nor organic. It's mostly the same as mined salt, with lots of random contaminants added. The color doesn't come from being sun-ripened, it's algae residue and trace amounts of metals.