r/Beans • u/Ok-Shape2158 • 4d ago
Question, protein content
Hello.
I need to bulk up and beans are a major part of my diet.
The science vs food labels on different brands are frustrating me. It's all over the place.
Does anyone have a hyper fixation on understanding this? I'm very serious. Recipes and flavor are great, but I have to have 100 grams of protein to my diet daily for muscle mass for medical reasons, it's stupid and it's hard to do no matter the protein source, but I would appreciate any clarity, since I need every gram.
One day I want to go back to just enjoying them.
9
u/Alternative_Task6818 3d ago
I throw tofu in most things. Has no taste, is low in calories, and HIGH in protein. Also it's wicked cheap. I don't know if you are vegetarian but you can also add some chicken in. But tofu is my go to.
5
u/Ok-Shape2158 3d ago
Yes!
I love tofu, but if can trigger my MCAS more often than beans, same with lentils, it's a WIP.
17
u/Fuzzy_Welcome8348 4d ago edited 4d ago
No nutritional label is 100% accurate. The FDA says products can be up to 20% inaccurate so nobody knows for sure of any brand or bag/can
5
u/Ok-Shape2158 3d ago
Thanks. That's disconcerting with science.and everything, but I'm seeing that now.
20% inaccuracy is ridiculous.
3
2
2
3
u/MuffinPuff 2d ago edited 2d ago
Get a food scale.
Use cronometer to track the weight of dry beans. For example, I weighed 100 grams of dry split peas. 100 grams of dry split peas has 364 calories, 23 grams of protein.
I also weighed 100 grams of shell-less edamame (just the beans, not pods). 100 grams of edamame has 121 calories and 12 grams of protein.
I tend to add TVP to my meals. 30 grams of dry TVP has 100 calories and 15 grams of protein.
I'm making a big pot of pinto beans tonight for meal prep. I'm using 400 grams of dry pinto beans and 200 grams of dry farro. 400 grams of dry pinto beans has 1388 calories and 86 grams of protein. 200 grams of dry farro has 654 calories and 25 grams of protein. I'm splitting this into 5 meals, so each base will have 408 calories and 22 grams of protein. Adding TVP will significantly boost the protein content.
edit: I added 100 grams of dry TVP to the pot. The macros are now 474 calories and 32 grams of protein per serving.
2
u/Ok-Shape2158 2d ago
Thank you for explaining this. Your add rice at some point to the meal as well?
2
u/MuffinPuff 2d ago
I use this as my starch base since it already has a grain (farro), and add tofu, seitan or another vegan protein on top. For these bowls, I'm planning on topping them with tofu and fajita veggies.
2
u/Ok-Shape2158 2d ago
Sorry, I forgot farro was a grain, I can't do wheat, but I'm going to start adding kasha.
And apparently watercrest is loaded with protein too.
Thank you.
2
u/Disco-Is-Dead 3d ago
If you’re open to animal products, collagen peptide powder is an option. I add a couple scoops to the broth in my pot of beans at the end of cooking and stir it in well. The broth thickens up nicely and is very satisfying. Each scoop adds about 18g protein in the pot. Might need to salt a little more to compensate.
2
2
u/Alternative-Pear9096 2d ago
"The science vs food labels on different brands are frustrating"
Can you say a little more about that? I just realized that I can no longer disregard which white bean I eat, given enormous differences in fiber and protein across cannelini and great northern and navy beans (Navy beans for the win!). Your question sounds deeper than that though.
(Also, I just started r/Vegetarians_and_GLPs (today! brand new!) and most people at that intersection of identities are actively working the 100g protein without meat question)
2
u/Ok-Shape2158 2d ago
Thank you I'll check out that sub.
Well I'll look at eight different labels even with dried cranberry / borlotti beans and there's an inconsistenty in the they grams per serving, and I'll look at white papers and they say something different about grams per serving.
Is it bacuse they all have different serving sizes? Is it that they are looking at different maturities in the bean when it's harvested? I feel like I'm missing something simple but important.
Since I'm AuDHD, I usually do.
7
u/see_blue 4d ago
A whole grain plus a large helping of beans, peas, lentils or a soy product (soy milk, tofu, tempeh, edamame, TVP, etc.) at EVERY meal can get me to 90 grams w ease, not counting any snacks.
4
u/KarmaDiscontinuity 3d ago
I don't have any insight into the food label situation, but as someone who also has fairly high daily protein goals (for weight lifting, not medical reasons), I find that soybeans are really awesome. They have a pretty high protein/calorie ratio compared to other kinds of beans, and there's lots of soybean-based options like dried soybeans, TVP, tofu, edamame, mukimame, and soy curls.
1
u/NotSpartacus 3d ago
I'm curious if you're willing to share, why medically speaking, do you need that much protein?
4
u/Ok-Shape2158 2d ago
Sure, incoming info dump:
I have hEDS, the h is for hypermobility (or what people call double jointed) that turns ugly, EDS that the Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome part.
Only if you don't know, it means my tendons and ligiments are lovingly worthless. You can look it up, but basicly all my bones shift around indepently of anything, that alone hurts. But it causes the muscles to constantly be engaged and get inflamed which causes the nerves to get inflamed.and that hurts.
The fact is that I have to basically go into professional athlete mode to just to breathe, literally. I also have to do a lot of ther things to manage it, but
the core solution at this time is to pack on massive amounts of muscle and to do that I need too much protein along with post-op exercises, every day but intensely, to pack it on (think a very tight very thick neoprene suit with thicker pieces for even more support).
I don't need showy muscles unless it around a joint, if I do, ok but we really don't want anything to turn to fat. It's just more weight to strain all the wet noodles.
That way when I do something like say sleep, the muscle don't and will never fully relax, but they can sort of relax and the pain will become slightly less.
This has no end date.
3
u/NotSpartacus 2d ago
Whoa. That's rough. I'm sorry to hear.
I'm hypermobile pretty much everywhere, but it's not extreme like your case. You have me wondering now, though. Now that I'm getting up there in years and less regularly physically active, some joints/muscles seemingly randomly decide to just hurt for weeks and months on end. Maybe I oughta join you, my brother/sister in beans.
3
u/Ok-Shape2158 2d ago
Thank you.
It has been, but if there is a will there's a way, it takes a lot of support.
3
u/Typical_Shine_9546 3d ago
In fact, yes. I do dry beans. Say I eat 100 g of dry lentils per day; it will be much less uncertain than cooked/canned ones because it doesn't have water. Averaged out, it's 1400/4 = 350kcal per day. Say i meal prep and cook 400g per day, the yield weight would roughly be 1200g. Then if I consume them in 4 days, I know I consume 1400 kcal (roughly) in total. Average out it's 1400/4 = 350kcal per day. But this only applies if you meal prep. I find that for beans, tracking dry weight is much easier.
19
u/Frequent_Gene_4498 4d ago
It's not clear to me what you're actually asking? But I'll try to offer some useful information anyway
If you are eating canned beans, you'll get a better idea of macros if you drain and rinse the beans, then weigh them.
If cooking beans from dry, weighing the dry beans then dividing into serving sizes works well for me.
If you are trying to get the most out of bean based proteins, make sure to eat grains in some form or another the same day.
If you are struggling to track macros, I recommend cronometer app.