DRY vs. CANNED BEANS

For a food that is incredibly nutritious and versatile in its uses, beans sure do get a bad wrap.  The reality is the more you eat beans the less likely you are to have the adverse effect that most people fear when eating beans.  Beans are actually incredibly good for your digestion and helps keep your GI tract healthy because of all the fiber that they contain.  It is recommended that the average adult consume about 25-38g of fiber a day (let's face it most of us don't get that), by eating a 1/2 cup of beans everyday you will get closer to achieving this goal and it will actually help your body adjust enough that you won't have the embarrassing side effects. The other great thing about beans is it is a good source of protein.  By replacing beans for whatever other meat you would have normally eaten that day you will reduce your overall cholesterol, sodium, saturated and trans fat intake.  

   So how do dry beans and canned beans stack up against each other? Well in researching it and trying to decide for myself which was best for my family it was hard to find any real good comparisons.  The fact is everything pointed to dry beans being better on every count, except for convenience. 

    Dry beans are cheaper, for a 1lb. bag of pinto beans you will pay about $1.00, which will yield about 12 -13 cups of beans which comes out to be about $0.08 a serving.  A can of pinto beans is 15.5 oz. or about 3 1/2 cups and sells for $0.79 which comes out to be about $0.23/serving. Over a year that is a huge savings when you buy dry vs. canned. Of course if you don't tend to eat too many beans in the first place then the savings are negligible. 

   When preparing dry beans you have to plan ahead of time, which most of us don't always do, because you have to soak them usually overnight.  There are some people that will just bring the water to boil with the beans in it, then turn off the heat and let the beans sit for an hour. There is some controversy about which method is best, most people are of the opinion that an overnight soaking is best and will remove most of the flatulence causing effects. When you prepare your own dry beans you have control over how much sodium is added and you can also take this time to infuse some flavor into it that you won't get with canned beans. One important thing to note is that you should never add any salt to your beans until they have cooked.  Adding salt or anything that has sodium in it to the beans before they are fully cooked will make it so that they don't full cook and soften the way they should. 

   Canned beans are definitely more convenient in that they are ready to go and all you have to do is open the can. To get rid of some of the sodium that is on them, you can buy the no salt or reduced salt versions, and no matter what you should always rinse them.  Rinsing them you will remove about 40% of the sodium that is in the beans when they are canned.  Some people also argue against using canned beans because of the BPA that is put in the lining of the can. 

   Another difference between dry and canned is the texture.  Some people find that the canned ones tend to be mushy while the dry one have more of a creamy texture.  Depending on how you are using them, the texture may not matter that much, but if you have a picky eater then usually texture is everything and could be the difference between eating the meal and not eating it. I have a bean hater in my family, he won't eat beans and says it is the way they feel in his mouth.  One of these days I will get him to eat them.

   Overall, it really comes down to preference.  I keep both on hand for the versatility it gives me. Nutritionally they are basically the same(except for sodium content). No matter what beans won't last much more than a week in the fridge once they have been cooked or opened. So don't go thinking well I'll just prepare a bunch ahead of time and save myself the hassle.  If you properly store them you can get away with this but don't just try to store them in the fridge. 

   One final note, if you are planning on making your own bean flour there is some debate about how you should go about doing it. Some people say it is ok for you to just go a head and use the dry beans as is, making sure to get the rocks or pebbles out before grinding them.  Others say that if you want to avoid the adverse effects of beans you should soak them, dry them completely again and then grind them into a powder.  Some people have even tried doing this with canned beans to eliminate a step, however, I don't think I would just because of the sodium that is added.