Baked Beans
Food · Legume · Food, Typed Supps
Four point eight grams of fibre a hundred, for 91 calories. The tin is better than its reputation.
Stage by stage
- Cheap and stable (The tin): Shelf-stable fibre and folate at a cost almost nothing else matches.
- Low energy density (Stomach): 91 calories per 100 g with 4.8 g of fibre — filling for very little.
- Fermentation (Colon): The oligosaccharides that cause wind are also what feed the gut microbiota.
- Sodium (Circulation): 298 mg per 100 g, the one real drawback and partly fixable.
Timing
Nothing to time. If you are increasing fibre, go gradually and drink enough water — that is what prevents the bloating people give up over.
Time to effect
- Days: Stool bulk and satiety effects.
- 2–4 weeks: How long the wind takes to settle as the microbiota adapt.
Allergens
None of the fourteen major allergens. Derived from what this food is, not from a product label.
Eating patterns
Fits: Vegan, Vegetarian, Pescatarian, Halal, Kosher, Gluten-free.
Satiety
168 on the satiety index, where white bread is 100 — high. Measured by Holt et al. (1995).
Environmental footprint
1 kg CO2e and 397 litres of freshwater per kg, matched to "Peas" in Poore & Nemecek (2018), Science 360.
Cost band
Cheap — roughly £2.2 per kg, as a band midpoint rather than a price.
Key nutrients
Nutrition per 100g
- Calories: 91
- Protein: 4.8g
- Carbohydrate: 13g
- of which sugars: 5g
- Fat: 0.3g
- Fibre: 4.8g
- Sodium: 298mg
Food vs. supplement
Fibre supplements give you one fraction, usually psyllium or inulin. Beans give soluble fibre, insoluble fibre and resistant starch together, with protein, folate and minerals attached — which is why guidelines recommend legumes and not fibre powder.
Kitchen tip
If beans give you wind, keep going. It settles within a few weeks as your gut bacteria adapt, and stopping resets the clock.
Common myth
“Baked beans are full of sugar.” In reality: They carry 2.4 g of added sugar per 100 g — less than a tenth of what barbecue sauce has, and a fraction of most things on the condiment shelf. What they do carry is 4.8 g of fibre per 100 g on 91 calories, plus folate and molybdenum, in a tin that costs very little and lasts years. The sodium at 298 mg is the drawback worth attending to.
Recipes that use it
More in Legume
Sources