When You Eat Beans Every Day, This Is What Happens To Your Body

Let's face it: not everyone has time to prepare beans from their dried form. To that end, canned beans can be a great alternative, saving you hours in the kitchen.

But should you rinse your canned beans, especially if you plan to eat beans every day? There are pros and cons, as noted by Diane McKay, PhD, an assistant professor at Tufts University. "Many recipes advise rinsing and draining canned beans, which reduces sodium (by 41%, on average, in one study)," she penned in Tufts' Health and Nutrition Newsletter. "However, some of the minerals beyond sodium and certain vitamins (such as folate and other B vitamins) that are soluble in water also leach into the liquid part of canned beans." So if you do rinse your canned beans, you may want to recoup the nutritional losses by adding extra veggies to your dish.

And if you don't rinse? "If you don't plan to rinse canned beans, such as if you're including the canning fluid in chili, stew or soup, it's especially wise to buy reduced-sodium beans," McKay continued. That's because beans that are specifically labeled "reduced sodium" can have about 25 percent less sodium than their other canned counterparts.