Does rinsing reduce the sodium?
 

I was looking at a recipe yesterday and saw a note that rinsing canned beans reduces the amount of sodium in them.

Is that true? If so, how much sodium can you rinse away?

According to Prevention magazine, you can rinse away 35% of the sodium from canned beans. The rest is absorbed.

I like to rinse canned beans anyway. That liquid they pack the beans in is a dodgy mystery liquid, so I don't eat it :)

Originally Posted by baffled111:
I like to rinse canned beans anyway. That liquid they pack the beans in is a dodgy mystery liquid, so I don't eat it :)

LOL, I'm the same way. I see that liquid and every time say, "What the heck IS that???"

But yeah, rinsing canned goods can reduce SOME of the sodium. I also rinse ground meat after I brown it for recipes, it washes a lot of the fat off.

So when you log beans on your fitday or dailyplate, do you reduce the amount of sodium? Or do you just know that you sodium intake is less than what the program says?

I haven't been eating beans very often because of the sodium content. I'm missing out on fiber, dagnabbit!

Originally Posted by LLV:
LOL, I'm the same way. I see that liquid and every time say, "What the heck IS that???"

But yeah, rinsing canned goods can reduce SOME of the sodium. I also rinse ground meat after I brown it for recipes, it washes a lot of the fat off.

I believe that it is water, but some of the beans get soaked in, making the water thicker.

I used a can of beans yesterday that had HFCS and cane syrup in the liquid. I almost always check that in the store, but I guess I was preoccupied that day. They were just plain unflavored kidney beans, so I was surprised to find that in it. I rinsed them, maybe it helped, who knows...

Soaking canned fruits and veggies in water will also remove a good part of the salt and sugar in them. It's an osmosis thing, the sugar and salt will leach into the water.

Canned grean beans are way too salty for my tastes. Often I rinse them and then let them soak in a bowl of water for 10 - 15 minutes to get more of the salt out.