canned beans are convenient but are they as nutritious as home cooked and if you do use canned should you drain them or not this recent study spilled the beans the federal government recommends about a half a cup a day counting them as both a protein and a vegetable since they have the best of both worlds excellent sources of fiber and folate they're good sources of plant protein plant iron vitamin b1 and minerals such as magnesium phosphorus potassium and copper all while being naturally low in sodium yet americans don't know beans 96 of americans don't even
make the measly minimum recommended intake of beans chickpeas split peas or lentils it's actually the same percentage of americans that doesn't eat their greens every day to the healthiest things on the planet greens and beans and hardly anyone even makes the minimum just another piece added to the rather disturbing picture that is emerging of a nation's diet and crisis anyway back to the study don't get me started on greens in addition to their health benefits beans are cheap the researchers did a little bean counting and a serving of beans costs between 10 cents and if
you want to go crazy 40 cents as you can see canned beans cost about three times more than buying dried beans and cooking them yourself but beans can take hours to cook so my family just goes wild and splurges on that extra 20 cents a serving nutrition wise cooked and canned are about the same but the sodium content of canned beans can be a hundred times that of cooked draining and rinsing the canned beans can get rid of about half the sodium but you're also draining and rinsing away some of the nutrition so i recommend
when buying canned beans get the no salt added varieties and keep and use that bean juice bottom line beans regardless of type or form are a nutrient-rich food and should be encouraged as part of a healthy diet you
