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Baked beans

DavyG

Active Member
Hello everyone,

I'm Dave and as I'm newly diagnosed... I'm here in the... newly diagnosed section

Apart from baked beans, potatoes and occasionally peas I do not eat any other veg.

I no longer crave the chocolates, jellies, licorice and boiled sweets that I ate in vast quantities, nor do I crave white bread (as much as I did and do love white bread) or pastry and cakes.... (I have found pastry is a trigger food for spikes) but, if I could only eat 1 food for the rest of my life it would be baked beans.
I always knew beans are good for fibre and assumed they kept me feeling full for longer as they must take longer to break down and digest but now I'm led to believe they are bad for me, and my 2 to 3 tins per day is now 2 to 3 tins per week.

Are beans THAT bad? is it the sauce? is there a way I can increase my intake? can I make baked beans but with a healthy sauce? or will beans be one more thing that I still control?

Out of interest I don't eat any seafood either.
 
The sauce is the worst (sugary) part of the beans. Heinz make a low sugar version, but they're very much an acquired taste.

What will help with normal baked beans, is simply to sieve them by serving them using a slotted spoon, leaving behind most of the sauce. You will still get the taste but much less sugar.

Beans without any sauce at all (I.e. tinned Haricot beans) still contain carbs. Beans do count towards your 5 a day veg.
 
if it is just the sauce, maybe I can make my own if there is a method or a recipe but if it is the beans themselves then I guess I will learn to live with that. It's strange that I was raised on dumplings and suet puddings meat and I used sweets as energy for work and ate a loaf of bread a day, but after such a drastic change in my diet and eating habits, the only thing I miss are baked beans.
 
Ordinary Heinz baked beans are about 50 gm of carb per tin, and 20 of those are sugar, so not good.
There are alternatives with a lower carb count but that is just relative, really. You could do some research into various beans and recipes - there are a lot on the internet which might help to fill the gap.
 
Thanks @Ledzeptt I think I could be happy with 75% of a tin of beans by sieving the sauce rather than 50% of a tin with sauce. And you're absolutely right abbout the taste of low sugar beans...
 
Thanks @Resurgam, I don't know why but I'm not really adventurous with food, I have a very limited range (I'm just a meat and potato person) so perhaps I will keep beans to my "reward list" which has nothing else on it I will sieve them and have a slightly bigger serving but only 2 times a week now I know about the carbs and not being 1 of my 5 a day. (I've been here a few minutes and learned more than I have the last week )

It seems very difficult finding a food that is filling and tasty with little impact on BG
 
@DavyG I think yummly website have the 10 best low carb baked bean recipes. I did a Google search . I'd try that and then follow up some of them. I'm sure you could find a good alternative.
 
@DavyG

I found this recipe for you to try:

http://www.thetiffinbox.ca/2010/05/english-baked-beans-heinz-style.html?m=1

Notice that it does contain sugar, but perhaps you could replace it with stevia or something. The other problem is that tomatoes also contain carbs, but you can't omit them!

Thinking about it, I wouldn't worry too much about the beans themselves because of their fibre content. For example, Asda tinned haricot beans contain 12.1g carbs per 100g, however 7.2g is indigestible fibre meaning you only access the net 4.9g (12.1-7.2=4.9).

This is why beans are classed as low GI foods (glycemic index), so they have less impact on our blood sugars.

You have to eat something and ideally food you enjoy!

You may want to try other beans for variety e.g. Heinz do a "Five beanz" in a sauce that's tasty - again, sieve the sauce. Or, try their beans in Tuscan or chilli sauces. (They are more expensive though.)

P.s. I don't work for Heinz, but I'm vegetarian, so I do know my beans
 
I used to love baked beans that had been cooked in oil, on a slice of fried bread, if ever I ate it , I used to feel hugely guilty because of the oil! Now I know that the oil bit was fine.

You might find that if you do want an occasional treat taking out some of the sauce but actually heating them up using some butter , might lower the spike - food in general seems to spike less when its eaten with fats . Also choose carefully when you eat them . I know for me, whether i eat or not my blood sugars will be high in the morning, whatever I eat at 6pm will have much less effect than at any other time of day - that's a question of figuring out when its best for you.
 
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Baked beans on toast was my most enjoyed lunch before I was diagnosed. I tested and tested them, with and without the toast. They spiked me to double figures. I tried the Heinz reduced sugar ones. There was no difference. They spiked just as much. And I always cooked them with masses of butter. Made no difference I'm afraid. I had to give them up.
 
Must admit having two slices of toast and baked beans sent my sugars to bout 12 from 6 - however it was a very shortlived spike I was back to 6 within an hour - I don't think I'll be doing it again in a hurry but if I do wit well definitely be at 6.00 m not 10 am next time !
 
Thank you all so much... coming to this forum has been brilliant, I'm learning so much. Thank you @mo53 that site has lots of great recipes and I've never heard of it before.

Thank you @Ledzeptt That recipe is great, I have never tried Stevia or any sugar substitute, considering that I could easily consume in excess of 1 lb of sweets a day, I've never had sugar in hot drinks or on breakfast cereal so I think I can water down the tomatoes slightly and cut out all the sugar and salt and I think I will feel a lot less guilty about eating them.... I notice (after all these years) a lot of food has a lot of sugar salt and fat... I guess it wasn't important to me before but now it seems an awful lot.

Thank you @CherryAA You may also have answered another question of mine at the same time, I was wondering why similar foods have had different effects on my BG but now I have read your post, it was probably oil that stopped me spiking as I did before.
 
Dave, beans are not 'that bad' but need to be part of a balanced diet and although they do take longer to break down and add useful fibre they are not all that significant in regards to dietary balance. The 'reduced sugars' versions which I use are still fairly high in carbs, there's very little difference, but I reckon are ok if eaten in moderation. The low sugar versions do take a litle getting used to, but I suspect that part of the difference in taste is a lower salt content and this in itself is a good thing. We stopped adding salt when cooking a couple of years ago and now really dislike over-salted meals when we eat out.
The pre-diabetic diet you described isn't a good one for anybody, diabetic or not. You really do need to expand on your green veg intake. This may take a while but is worth it for the sake of your health.Try Stir-fried veg, it's a totally different taste. Reduce your potatoes intake as they are high in carbs.
It's great that you've already managed to cut out all those sweeties and reduced white bread. Doing this will already have started to help improve your blood sugars. Adapting to a diabetic diet can take a while, but is worth it.
Baked Beans from Cofid Data:
 
Well I'm definitely going to try all the recipes and options, and at the moment I'm monitoring everything just so I can figure out what I can enjoy without spiking. I just gave away all my butter and use flora because it has less unsaturated fat.... maybe I should have kept the butter... Talking of butter I love mushrooms cooked in a little butter... can we eat mushrooms?
 
Thank you @miahara I can see the carbs on that chart and was hoping that the fibre might justify the carbs, but maybe as , suggested earlier I might find some similar beans with a lower carb amount, also cooking myself I can remove all sugar and like you I don't have salt at home. In fact I have no salt, pepper or vinegar even though I love salt and vinegar on my chips from the shop... (well, I used to, I have a healthy fryer now and chips(fries) are a small rare treat) I do have various sauces but these have all been replaced by a very low calorie mayo, I don't even like ordinary mayo but I have been using 1 tablespoon of mayo a day as a substitute for 1 teaspoon of spread. (quantity over quality)

Hmm as for green vegetables, I don't know how I would be able to get them into my system. I only eat potatoes, beans and peas (garden peas now that I'm not liking to replace the processed peas that I didn't mind) no other vegetables or seafood except corn on the cob and someone told me once that corn is not good. I thought about making a fruit drink and slowly add some veg until the taste became unbearable but I found out fruit juice is not good (thankfully before I bought a juicer). It's a shame Veg doesn't come in tablet form.

I really cannot thank everyone enough for all the input, I really appreciate it and at 58 I feel like I'm back at school, but this time with great teachers telling me the answers
 
Yes! Mushrooms are great for you-very low carbohydrate but packed with minerals-you can even cook them in butter if you want.
 
I eat mushrooms without too much effect often fried in lard or goosefat!

Vinegar is very good for you ! try drinking apply cider vinegar (with the Mother) LOL means its still got the fermentation stuff going on and its sweeter than the other stuff - dilute in water

switch you low calorie mayo ( too much sugar) for full fat mayo - tastes better and is better for you
green vegetable - garden peas or corn are not great being quite high in carbs

Vegetables - once you add butter to them most green vegetables taste much better. try parboiling any of them, then frying in butter, lard , goose or duck fat

try sprouts, parboiled , fried with a few pecan nuts to the mixture - tastes great.
or bean sprouts parboiled, then added to a pan with butter and a couple of fresh tomatoes, or for a different taste almonds or pine nuts

if you cook cauliflower until its quite soft, use the potato masher to mash it up, add butter and cream and maybe a bit of nutmeg, the resulting blend tastes a lot like potato for when you want a " traditional " meat and two veg meal.


Don't use any bottled oils- for cooking or for that matter eating unless is olive oil or nut oil drizzled on thing preferably accompanied by balsamic vinegar ( the oil /vinegar mix is good for blood sugar)


I went to a restaurant today and order the steak - I told the waitress to find me the fattiest bit they had and serve that with ll the fat alongside the fried sprouts with pecan nutes as above and some peppercorn cream just no potatoes -with a side of lettuce and parmesan cheese she clearly thought I was barking mad, I ate 1200 calories in one meal washed down with a single, single malt and a glass of water , it's the only meal I felt I needed all day, it tasted glorious had about 8 carbs in total and my blood sugars hardly moved .

once you get used to this you will find the food tastes way better than you've eaten in your life.
 
Scrambled eggs with cheese is very filling and low carb!
 
thank you @SWUSA_ I love mushrooms so that's good to know I can have them several times each week. I also love cheese and I've cut myself down on it because I used to have cheese on toast so too much bread and way too much cheese but, scrambled egg and cheese sounds great and I wouldn't feel the need to overuse the cheese in fact I think I could eat that without any bread.

@CherryAA Thanks I'll get some balsamic and put some flavour back into my meals. Both my parents ate everything meat, fish or vegetable. Unfortunately although I tried every vegetable that they tried I cannot stand them, I can eat a very small amount of carrot if I hide it in some tomato soup or eaten with meat or potato, but things like cabbage, cauli, sprouts, swede, parsnip, turnip, sweet potato are all disgusting, as for salad veg, I have (maybe 10 times in my life) eaten a lettuce leaf in a BLT or bacon cheeseburger and only because it is tasteless and I didn't mind. but no onions, garlic, cucumber, avocado, squash or anything else like that, I've tried them all and I'd fast if the only other option was to eat them.

I love meat, I'll eat any from snake to dinosaur if I could find it
Should I be taking some vitamin supplements to offset my lack of vegetables? I do love all fruit, dairy and nuts but they seem to be a bit of a minefield knowing some are high in sugar or fat. My friend in America said a little peanut butter on a cracker is ok as an occasional treat.

At present I'm avoiding flour as much as I can, I eat around 1 to 2 slices of wholegrain bread per day and the one time I had a small slice of apple pie and a spoonful of ice cream my BG went from 6.1 to over 14 when I checked it 2 hours later, it panicked me, especially as previously I'd eaten a small piece of pork pie that was very fatty and the pastry only made my bg go to 9
 
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