Legumes, soy and plant protein
Baked beans on a GLP-1: protein, portions and how to actually eat it
About 5 g of protein per 100 g (3.5 oz), tinned, in tomato sauce, for around 90 calories. Half a standard tin, about 210 g (7.4 oz), gives roughly 10 g of protein for 189 calories.
To reach 30 g of protein from baked beans alone you would need about 600 g (21.2 oz). On a small appetite that is often more than one sitting allows, which is why we pair it rather than chase the whole target from one food.
How baked beans sits on a GLP-1
Baked beans are warm, soft, sweet and need no chewing, which is why they turn up so often as the food people can still face on a GLP-1. The protein is modest: about 5 g per 100 g (3.5 oz), so half a tin is about 10 g, and a whole 420 g (15 oz) tin is 21 g along with a fair amount of sugar and a lot of volume. They are a comfort food that happens to carry some protein, and they work best as the base under something that carries more.
When your appetite is small
Half a tin, about 210 g (7.4 oz), with an egg poached on top and 30 g (1 oz) of grated cheese is about 24 g in a small bowl, warm and soft the whole way through, and it takes four minutes. If half a tin is too much, a third of a tin with the same egg and cheese is still about 20 g.
Three ways to prepare it
Beans with an egg poached in them
Warm the beans in a small pan, make a well, crack in an egg, lid on for four minutes. Cheese on top. A complete small meal in one pan.
On one slice of toast with cheese, not two
One slice of wholemeal toast, half a tin of beans, cheese grilled on top. Halving the bread keeps room for the beans and the cheese.
Blended into a smooth tomato and bean soup
Beans, a little stock and a spoon of Greek yoghurt blended smooth. Soup for a day when even beans are too much texture.
What to eat it with
An egg, cheese, a chopped sausage or a rasher of bacon, which bring the protein the beans do not, and Worcestershire sauce or hot sauce for a flat palate. Beans on two slices of toast is a filling 15 g that leaves no room for anything better.
How it compares
| Food | Protein per 100 g | Energy per 100 g | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Baked beans | about 5 g | 90 kcal | this page |
| Kidney beans | about 8 g | 125 kcal | See the page |
| Eggs | about 13 g | 150 kcal | See the page |
| Lentils | about 9 g | 115 kcal | See the page |
All figures are typical values for the food as eaten, tinned, in tomato sauce, not laboratory figures for a particular brand.
Australian, US and UK names
Baked beans in tomato sauce in Australia and the UK, where Heinz and SPC or supermarket brands dominate and the tin is 400 to 420 g (14 to 15 oz). In the US, baked beans usually means a sweeter molasses or brown sugar style, often with pork, and the tomato sauce version is sold as British style or vegetarian beans.
Questions people ask
Are baked beans high in protein?
No. About 5 g per 100 g (3.5 oz), so half a tin is about 10 g and a whole tin about 21 g with roughly 20 g of sugar alongside. Put an egg and cheese with half a tin and the bowl becomes a real 24 g stop.
Your number comes first
Knowing what is in a food only helps once you know how much you are aiming for. The target is 1.2 to 1.6 g of protein per kg of your goal weight, not your current weight, which for most people is 90 to 140 g a day.
Work out your protein targetMore on eating well when your appetite is small: high protein foods for a small appetite, how much protein on a GLP-1, and every food we have written up. The whole system in five documents is the Keep Muscle Kit, A$47 / US$29 / £23.
EverStrong provides nutrition and strength coaching and education. It is not medical advice and does not replace your prescribing doctor.