Refried beans - friend or foe?

[Vince]

I'm going to a mexian restaurant tomorrow night.

They have plenty of chicken & cheese type meals I can eat with no problem. (skipping the chips and torillas.)

Alomst every side dish is rice and refried beans.

I couldn't find a Glycemic index rating on them. I see they are high carb but also high fiber.

I'm wondering if I can eat them or not.

I know, I know... some will say they are fine and some will say they are the devil.

But for you low-carb types that easily skyrocket... are they too much?

I'm wondering if I should chance it at least once and chalk it up to a learning experience when my GL jumps to 1,000,000. :)

But if most can't handle it, I won't even try.

I would have posted this elsewhere but I wanted to keep the majority of insulin users out of it since I don't use it.

Thanks!

[Harold]

Real Refried Beans are made with lard! Most homogenized American Mexican restaurants do not refry beans in a skillet so they may not have any lard content. You might if it's a chain restaurant check for a web site that has nutrition information and go from there. I can usually get away with having no more than a quarter cup. Experiment!

[blacklightmike]

Some info on refried beans from this site:

What is the glycemic index? » Michael R. Eades, M.D. (http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/?p=300)

"...If we tried the same experiment with refried beans (like those you would find in Mexican food), we would find that the area under the blood glucose curve caused by the 50 grams of carbohydrate from the refried beans would be only about 40% of that caused by the pure glucose. We would say that the refried beans have a glycemic index of 40."

Just eat 'em, I'd say. It's not like you're going to eat them as a staple of your diet, so enjoy your night out! IMHO, of course...

[princesslinda]

Vince:
I regularly eat refried beans...both at home and in the mexican restaurants. I think the key is moderation...I usually don't finish the large serving they put on the plate and I usually don't have any problems with them. The last time we had mexican, I got chicken fajitas, ate only 1 tortilla and had refried beans as well...my 2 hr was 140 (a little more than I like it to be, but acceptible to me for all the food I had). I try to make sure when I have it I also go and do something afterwards (like go through the mall or something) and I think this helps as well.

I say try it, just as we do our other foods, and see what it does to you. I think if you forego the rice and the salsa and chips, you'll do fine.

Linda

[Cyborg]

I also eat refried beans in moderation. When I have time to make breakfast, I often make an eggs burrito on a low carb tortilla, with cheese, eggs and about 2 tbsp of refried beans.

My wife had her amnio today and the nurse told me I had to take her out to dinner. Perhaps I'll load up my reservoir and take her to our local Mexican restuarant...

[mzizgayle]

go to The Glycemic Index (http://www.glycemicindex.com) on the left side click on data base, then enter in the food name, I have found a lot of foods there

[princesslinda]

The "pintos and cheese" from Taco Bell contains 18 carbs, 8 fat, 10 fiber, 9 protein. I would think most refried beans would be somewhat similar in carbs and with that much fiber, probably wouldn't cause a spike unless you ate tons of them...at which time, blood sugar would be the LEAST of your worries...:T

[Cyborg]

go to The Glycemic Index (http://www.glycemicindex.com) on the left side click on data base, then enter in the food name, I have found a lot of foods there

There's gotta be a better site than that one. I typed in 5 foods, 3 came back with no results. 1 came back with a wierd dish that contained the food, and the 5th came back with strange variations of the food item.

[jvetter18]

I would say FREIND for the eater. FOE for anyone around you afterwards.

[andypoo]

Ny sida 1 (http://www.bentbay.dk/ring_of_Fire.htm)
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I think you all ought to listen to this;^
^
^

[notme]

I buy vegetarian refried beans and eat them in moderation. I would say eat them, but stay away from the beans made with lard. Many Mexican restaurants also serve vegetarian refried beans.

[blacklightmike]

I would say FREIND for the eater. FOE for anyone around you afterwards.

:laugh: :laugh: :laugh:

jvetter for the win!

Seriously, this thread is making me voracious for some good Mexican... shoot, even bad Mexican...

[sweetcheeks]

I eat tons of refried beans when i eat mexican (real mexican) they are high in fiber, to me they are the same thing as a southern pinto beans cooked in a kettle. At least they taste the same.
so if you deduct the fiber its only 25 carbs, and you'll meet most of your daily fiber intake in that one meal lol and i was told any kinda bean was good for you by my dietician..... so ill eat beans whenever wherever possible

i love refried beans




this is from calorieking.com

for 1 cup refried authentic mexican beans

Calories 237(Kilojoules 990)

% Daily
Value*
Total Fat 3.2 g 5%
Saturated Fat 1.2 g 6%
Cholesterol 20 mg 7%
Sodium 753 mg 31%
Total Carbohydrates 39.1 g 13%
Dietary Fiber 13.4 g 53%
Sugars 0.6 g
Protein 13.8 g
Calcium 88.2 mg
Potassium 672.8 mg

[princesslinda]

Check out dietfacts.com and you'll find a great listing of all the restaurant menus and name brand grocery items and their carbs, calories, fiber, etc. I use this a lot before going out to eat, keeps me in line!

[FTW]

My weekly "treat" meal is Mexican for lunch on Friday with my husband.

We share a 1/2 order of nachoes covered in melted cheese.

Then I have a chicken tostada.

I know the nachos have a ton of carbs, but I consistently test surprisingly well after this meal. I'm convinced it's all the fat in the cheese and sour cream that slows the absorption of the carbs to an acceptable level.

Sorry, I haven't tried any refried beans.

FTW

[blacklightmike]

I swear, I'm going home, soaking some black beans, and making a hot, HOT chili... I may not even take my coat off first! Heck, I might even eat the beans DRY! (Insert salivating smiley here)

[pinkytricia]

Aawwww...My little friend the Pinto Bean.....:bandit:

Why you NO like me???.....:vroam: :hmmmm:....... :s:

I have to be very careful BG's go up....

Hello... that is one of the major food groups for us down here....Geez...

:T

[labob]

I love, love, love Mexican food, but let's face it -- the way it's served in most restaurants, it's practically all carbs all the time.

I still love it. So what I do is remind myself that the world will not end if I do not have every single type of carb today that typically comes on a plate at a Mexican restaurant.

So if I'm going to have refried beans and some rice, that's it for the carbs -- no tortillas, no nachos, no extra grains or starches anywhere in the meal. But the world keeps on turning because I know that the next time I might have some of those things instead of beans and rice.

In the meantime, filling up the rest of the plate with green and red peppers in a salad still makes the meal feel festive to me.

If you have the opportunity to self serve, I also find that really small portions of foods that are not necessarily so good for my glucose levels but that I love are fine. My problem comes when I'm given a plate in a restaurant with way more carbs than I would have chosen for myself. For some reason, I am hard wired to finish whatever is put on my plate. Keeping it off my plate in the first place is relatively easy, but once it's there . . .

[Vince]

Well, I'm just going to go ahead and eat some in moderation.

Nobody here really said that my eyes would fall out if I did. :)

It's a small local chain restaurant called Cazadores. They are too small to end up on dietfacts.com me thinks. I'm sure they are made in the worst way possible. Lard and all. That's what makes them taste so yummy.

My wife and I go out to eat once every two weeks. Last time was Chili's and I did eat some of the classic nachos. Very little. For some reason nachos don't bother my numbers much. But multi-grain double-fiber bread makes me go spikety-spike. Ah well.

Thanks for all the replies. Or perhaps I should say "gracias!"

[mzizgayle]

ROFL Cyborg...........you can also find books that will have the listings of the glycemic index...go to Amazon, I found a couple there.......and these foods are not strange...maybe way you typed in name lol

Food and Manufacturer GI serve (g) carb/serve (g) GL

Corn tortilla, served with refried mashed pinto beans and tomato sauce (Mexican) 39 100 - -

Wheat tortilla served with refried pinto beans and tomato sauce (Mexican) 28 - - -

Refried Beans (Casa Fiesta) 38 113 grams dry rice 19.8 7.5

[Vince]

I thought I would give the results. :T

A small steak with mexican seasoning, a double order of refried beans with white spicy-ish cheese melted over it, and three corn-chips dipped in cheese.

Before meal number was 102.

1 hr = 135
2 hr = 123
3 hr = 142
4.5 hr = 107

A little too high for my tastes but not "horrible."

I ate a double order of those beans. Next time I'll stick to one order and replace the rice that came with it with something different instead of more beans. :o

Moderation and all that.

It just worried me since it was probably the most "carby" thing I have eaten since January.

Thanks for all the replies.

[Cyborg]

I swear, I'm going home, soaking some black beans, and making a hot, HOT chili... I may not even take my coat off first! Heck, I might even eat the beans DRY! (Insert salivating smiley here)

:rofl: I always make a huge pot and store it in containers in the deep freeze. I use whole pintos and kidneys in my chili. I just took one out of the freezer yesterday. I'll probably have some for breakfast on my egg burrito... :star:

[xMenace]

I often make a plate of nachos: spread OEP refrieds and lace them with tomato, peppers, onion, anything else I fancy at the time, and cheese. 3-5mins in the oven and I'm a very happy couch camper. I find I need to dual bolus quite heavily though. They stay with me long after 4 hours.

[dgrilli]

Lard is not on my menu. Eating Kosher is difficult living among the nations.

nything from the Swine raises my blood sugar and makes me sick even hours after.

Refried beans fried in coconut oil or olive oil with a little cheese and fresh goats milk. My Body loves this and my control does too.

Specialy with eggs.

[am1977]

I would say FREIND for the eater. FOE for anyone around you afterwards.

Yeah, I was just going to say, I hope you all have BEAN-O available :eek:.