[nicolewoods1]

what is the difference between regular beans and mature seed beans???? plus when i just look up a cup of COOKED beans i got a completely different number than when i chose a cup of beans (yield after cooking) now i know yield after cooking means weight and size after cooking BUT wouldn't that be the same as one cup AFTER cooking!! why are the numbers so different, if anyone can help with this it would be greatly appreciated. it makes a big difference in calories so i really need to know. thank you!

[gardenerjoy]

That is confusing.

Many legumes can be eaten at an immature stage, think edamame or green beans or pea pods. These are generally very low in calories.

I think mature seed beans, then, are the beans that you eat later in the process when they are harvested as hard beans. These can be bought two different ways: dried which requires you to soak and cook them, often for hours, or canned which reduces the cooking time but increases the price and sodium level. Although even canned beans are a bargain compared to other protein sources. These are general a bit higher in calories and often a lot higher in nourishing things like protein and fiber.

And I have no clue about why the beans that yield a cup after cooking wouldn't be the same calorie as a cup of cooked beans, unless there's some confusion in the type of beans as above.

[nicolewoods1]

thank you for the response. they are hard kidney beans in a bag. when i learned about the sodium in caned beans i vowed to do the bagged beans in the crock pot all day so that's what i do, but this is the 1st month im looking at calories so i got confused.

[EmmaD]

Ah, you must be using FitDay! They have some strange phrasing sometimes, as well as some bizarre choices. I get a good laugh almost every time I have to search for something new. I don't know if Sparkpeople or the others have as many strange choices.

I just looked up kidney beans.
For Red kidney beans, dry, cooked, fat not added in cooking, when you choose 1 "cup", the output is 217 calories. That sounds about right for a cup of cooked beans.
When you choose "cup, dry, yield after cooking" - THAT gave 563 calories! So I think they are talking about 1 cup of dry beans, no matter what the final volume/yield is (should be 2.5 - 3.5 cups cooked)

If you start with Red kidney beans, dry, cooked, 1 cup = 330 calories. I think they are assuming that fat was added. I remember a discussion about this before. Always choose the "fat not added" option and then add in your oils/fats if applicable.

about the "mature seed beans" part. Some of them listed in that category are raw, so that would be beans that had never been dried...

[nicolewoods1]

thank you, that is exactly what i did. so do you recommend a more accurate site?