All of them seem really similar, but some are still slightly higher % fiber and some may have lower GIs (I presume lentils are easiest to digest but they also seem the “simplest”)
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They vary in their nutrient profiles, fiber content, phytochemical composition, etc.
Rather than focusing on the one “best” it might be prudent to aim for a wide variety to get exposure to as many different phytonutrients as possible. That’s what I do.
But sometimes I lean towards the less gassy ones (lentils, split peas, adzukis, etc.).
Digestive enzymes and beano can help your tolerance. Eating smaller quantities per meal is also good. At almost 60 I can no longer consume massive quantities without issues like I could when I was your age.
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Tbh green “beans” are the healthiest.
But…
“Fullness-per-Calorie” score — now with ancestral beans
Using the same quick-and-dirty index as before
$$
\textbf{Satiety proxy} ;=;\frac{\text{protein g + dietary fiber g}}{\text{kcal}}\times100
$$
| Rank ↓ | Bean / pod (cooked unless noted) | kcal / 100 g | Protein (g) | Fiber (g) |
Satiety proxy (g per 100 kcal) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ★ 1 | Tepary (Phaseolus acutifolius) | 65 kcal* | 4.7 | 5.1 | 0.151 (Nutrition Advance) |
| ★ 2 | Green (snap) beans | 31 | 1.8 | 2.7 | 0.145 (Verywell Fit) |
| 3 | Navy (haricot) | 128 | 7.5 | 9.6 | 0.134 (Verywell Fit) |
| 4 | Black | 132 | 8.9 | 8.7 | 0.133 (FatSecret) |
| 5 | Pinto | 245 kcal* | 6.3 | 6.3 | 0.126 (University of Rochester Medical Center) |
| 6 | Kidney (red/white) | 127 | 8.7 | 6.4 | 0.119 (Healthline) |
| 7 | Mesquite pod flour† | 388 | 13 | 25 | 0.098 (PMC, Wikipedia) |
*Tepary and pinto values converted from “1 cup” cookbook data to a 100-g basis.
†Mesquite is eaten as a dry flour from roasted pods, not a hydrated bean; its calories are concentrated, so the protein + fiber per calorie looks modest even though the food is 38 % protein + fiber by weight.
How the newcomers stack up
| What makes it filling? | Practical quirks | |
|---|---|---|
| Tepary | Highest soluble-fiber density of any common bean; ~25 % protein by dry weight; very low glycaemic load. | Harder to find; needs a longer simmer (or pressure cooker) to soften the waxy seed-coat that helps it survive desert droughts. |
| Green beans | Extreme water content ⇒ big stomach stretch for few calories; still delivers decent fiber. | Really a vegetable, not a mature pulse, so protein is low in absolute terms; you’ll need a bigger serving to equal the amino acids in dry beans. |
| Mesquite flour | Galactomannan gums and sweet, low-GI sugars give long-lasting energy; traditionally ground with the fibrous seed-coat intact. | ~4 × the energy density of cooked beans; use as 10-30 % of flour in breads or pancakes rather than as a heaping porridge. Hydrating the dry powder before eating improves satiety. |
Take-aways for maximum fullness on minimal calories
- Tepary > navy ≈ black if you can get it; otherwise navy/black remain the supermarket champs.
- Green beans are unbeatable for volume—add a mound alongside any starch or protein to stretch the meal.
- Mesquite flour is a stealth fiber booster, but treat it like a nut-flour: a spoonful goes a long way.
- Cool-and-reheat still helps: the retrograded starch trick that works for kidney and pinto also increases resistant starch in tepary.
- Chew well, eat wet, mind add-ins—the same low-calorie, high-satiety hygiene rules apply.
Bottom line:
For ancestral Native-American staples, tepary beans edge out even modern pulses for protein-plus-fiber per calorie, while mesquite flour offers a uniquely sweet, gluten-free way to sneak fiber into baked goods.
Why navy & black edge out kidney
- Fiber density: They pack ~35–40 % more soluble/insoluble fiber per calorie than kidney beans, which swells with water and triggers stretch receptors in the stomach.
- Protein parity: All Phaseolus beans hover near 25–28 % of calories from protein, so fiber is the differentiator.
- Energy density: At ~1.3 kcal / g after cooking, navy and black are still low-energy-dense, but the extra fiber means slightly larger hydrated bulk for the same calories.
Where kidney beans still shine
- α-Amylase inhibitor (Phaseolamin): White kidney/cannellini retain a bit of this compound even after home cooking, blocking a fraction of starch digestion and further flattening post-meal glucose—subjectively extending fullness even if the fiber number is smaller. The Nutrition Source
- Very low glycaemic load: They’re already low-GI; add the inhibitor plus resistant starch formed when you cool and re-heat them, and they can “feel” more filling than their protein-plus-fiber score predicts.
Practical tips to maximise fullness per calorie
- Cook from dry, then chill overnight. Cooling lets amylose retrograde into resistant starch; reheating doesn’t reverse this fully, so you keep the lower net calories and higher satiety.
I am.back.looking at black turtle beans which may benefit from higher tryptophan. There is a salad sold in the UK called 3 bean. I found it was a sleep aid, by a process of elimination I decided it was the btb I want to work out why, but I think a good source of tryptophan is important.
Oh! I was reading about this a while back because I seemed to have a poor reaction to lentils.
Check out this table from the paper: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/271140311_Lectins_agglutinins_and_their_roles_in_autoimmune_reactivities
The table is showing what tissues the various agglutinins bind to. Soy, wheat, and peanut
Lentils have an antinutrient in them called lectins/agglutinins, paper explains more. You can see in the table that the lentil antinutrient binds to quite a lot of different tissues, on par with wheat, soy, and peanut. However it’s one of the only one tested other than wheat and kidney/jack bean that binds to brain tissue. I get migraines and I’m already wheat free (most likely celiac as it runs in my family but was never tested). I tend to have a lot of poor responses to different types of food and they can trigger migraines. I feel like lentils was one of them.
Maybe it’s unrelated but after I saw that chart seeing how many tissues it gets to including the brain I got spooked. An interesting read, anyway.
I eat a large amount of chickpeas and black beans without issue. In recent years I am straying from edamame/soy as it seems to trigger cystitis - also one of the very allergenic ones on this list.
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Beans have different amino acid profiles.
I think it is also necessary to choose beans by if it is (or closer to) complete protein, especially if it has relative higher Met+Cys.
I tends to taking balanced, complete amino acids, maximize the benefit of every grams of protein.
| Legume | His | Ile | Leu | Lys | Met+Cys | Phe+Tyr | Thr | Trp | Val |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Soybean | 27 | 49 | 82 | 64 | 26 | 89 | 38 | 14 | 50 |
| Black Bean | 22 | 40 | 65 | 50 | 19 | 72 | 30 | 9 | 42 |
| Lentil | 25 | 42 | 71 | 52 | 22 | 78 | 33 | 11 | 47 |
| Chickpea | 23 | 41 | 68 | 45 | 21 | 74 | 31 | 10 | 44 |
| Pea | 20 | 37 | 62 | 46 | 17 | 68 | 28 | 8 | 38 |
| Kidney Bean | 21 | 38 | 63 | 48 | 18 | 70 | 29 | 12 | 40 |
| Fava Bean | 22 | 39 | 66 | 49 | 18 | 71 | 30 | 8 | 41 |
| Mung Bean | 24 | 40 | 67 | 50 | 20 | 75 | 32 | 10 | 45 |
| Pinto Bean | 21 | 37 | 61 | 47 | 17 | 69 | 28 | 9 | 39 |
| Lima Bean | 19 | 35 | 60 | 44 | 16 | 65 | 27 | 7 | 35 |
| WHO Requirement | 15 | 30 | 59 | 45 | 22 | 38 | 23 | 6 | 39 |
For this topic, soybean looks great.
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Surprised no one is looking at fiber, this is where the bean is king. 150g of pinto beans is relatively a small amount, and almost half of daily fiber requirement.
I don’t actually think it’s necessary to choose a bean based on its protein profile, unless you’re not consuming enough proteins to begin with.
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True that! You get fair amount of fibers with beans.
Anti-nutrients such as lectins and phytates are of minor concern. I soak and sprout them which takes care of phytates. Then pressure cooking neutralizes all lectins.
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Do you have a source for those figures?
The label for Pastene boiled lupini beans (from star market) is allegedly 15*8 = 120 calories per 227g/8oz container… not sure if i can trust the label here, that’s really low
but Google says 119 calories/100g (or 540.3 calories per lb), as does an amazon…
white kidney beans (boiled) meanwhile are 100 calories per 130g, or 349 calories per lb
o3 says
| Bean (cooked, boiled) | Calories / 100 g | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Mung beans | ≈ 105 kcal My Food Data | Lowest among the common mature “dry” beans. |
| Lupini beans | ≈ 116 kcal My Food Data | Tied with lentils; gets its reputation because it is unusually high in protein (25 g / cup) for that calorie level. |
| Lentils | ≈ 116 kcal My Food Data | Practically identical to lupini on a weight basis. |
| Black beans | ≈ 132 kcal My Food Data | |
| Kidney beans | ≈ 127 kcal (not shown in table but similar USDA entry) | |
| Chickpeas | ≈ 164 kcal My Food Data | Higher starch content drives the energy up. |
| Soybeans (mature, cooked) | ≈ 172 kcal My Food Data | Added fat makes them the densest of the major beans. |
But I sense lupini beans are less dense by volume and that makes a dif
In a standard kitchen measure ( 1 U.S. cup ≈ 240 mL, drained and cooked without added liquid)
| Bean (cooked, boiled) | Weight per cup | Calories per cup | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Lupini (lupin) beans | ≈ 166 g | ≈ 198 kcal | Hydrate strongly; high protein keeps calories low for the weight. My Food Data |
| Black beans | ≈ 172 g | ≈ 227 kcal | Slightly heavier packing than lupini. My Food Data |
| Red kidney beans | ≈ 177 g | ≈ 225 kcal | Heaviest of the three on a per-cup basis. My Food Data |
How many of a bean’s calories end up arriving
as short-chain fatty acids (SCFAs)?
| Scenario (per 100 g cooked beans**, ≈ ½ cup)** | Digestible kcal that reach the small-intestine* | kcal that reach the colon and re-enter as SCFAs† | Share of total kcal that are SCFAs |
|---|---|---|---|
| Plain beans (no drug) | ~115 kcal | ~12 kcal | ≈ 8-12 % |
| Beans + acarbose 50 mg (blocks part of starch hydrolysis) | ~95 kcal | ~18 kcal | ≈ 15-20 % |
*Calorie values for protein, digestible starch and fat use Atwater factors (4-4-9 kcal g⁻¹).
†SCFA energy assumed at the FAO/WHO figure of 2 kcal g⁻¹ fermentable carbohydrate .
How the numbers were derived
- Macro-composition of cooked beansA typical 100 g serving of boiled red-kidney beans provides 7.4 g total fibre (≈ 2 g soluble) and 21 g total carbohydrate, of which ≈ 3 g is resistant starch (RS) .
- What actually ferments?
- ≈ 60 % of insoluble cell-wall fibre, nearly all soluble fibre, and virtually all RS reach the colon and are fermented.*That yields ~6 g fermentable substrate (= (0.6 × 5.4 g insoluble) + 2 g soluble + 3 g RS).
- Energy that returns as SCFA6 g × 2 kcal g⁻¹ ≈ 12 kcal, i.e. ~10 % of the bean’s label energy.
- Effect of acarboseA 50 mg pre-meal dose typically diverts ≈ 4 g extra starch to the colon (human balance studies) .
- That starch would have delivered 16 kcal if fully digested in the small intestine, but returns as only 8 kcal of SCFAs.
- Net result: lower absorbed glucose energy (127 → ≈ 95 kcal) yet more SCFA energy (12 → ~20 kcal), so the SCFA share nearly doubles to 15-20 % of what you actually absorb from the beans.
Why the fraction is a
range
, not a single number
| Variable | Low end | High end |
|---|---|---|
| Bean species / preparation | Long boiling (more starch gelatinisation) reduces RS to ≈ 1-2 g 100 g⁻¹. | Brief simmer, or cook-cool-reheat beans raise RS to 4-5 g 100 g⁻¹ . |
| Gut transit & microbiota | Faster transit, low butyrogenic taxa → less carbohydrate fermented, more lost in stool. | Slow transit, high Faecalibacterium + Roseburia → near-complete fermentation. |
| Drug / additive | None. | Acarbose, other α-glucosidase inhibitors, or viscous fibre that escorts starch to the colon. |
Hence the 8-12 % (plain) and 15-20 % (with acarbose) figures should be read as typical mid-points for healthy adults eating common North-American bean portions.
Putting the numbers in context
- Whole-diet perspective. Across an average Western diet SCFAs account for ~10 % of total absorbed energy . A single serving of beans already matches that population average; adding acarbose turns one humble bean dish into an SCFA-rich, low-glycemic “calorie bargain.”
- Metabolic upside. SCFAs deliver fewer calories per gram and down-regulate ROS, glycation and inflammatory signalling—as you noted earlier—making this energy “cleaner” than the glucose and fat it replaces.
- Practical tweak. If you cool cooked beans overnight (retrogradation → more RS3) and take acarbose with them, the SCFA share can push toward one-fifth of the calories you actually extract—about as high as you can drive any staple food without outright fibre supplements.
Bottom line:
For plain cooked beans, about one calorie in ten ultimately returns to you as microbiota-derived SCFAs; slowing small-intestine digestion (e.g., with acarbose or by cooling/retrograding the starch) can raise that figure to ~15-20 %, while simultaneously trimming the glucose load that would otherwise spike blood sugar and oxidative stress.
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relevant
But why is there not a chickpea or lentil state? After all, these are nutritious crops that can be grown intensively, and their harvest consists of small seeds that can be dried, keep well, and can as easily be divided and measured out in small quantities as rations as the cereal grains. Here the decisive advantage of the cereal grains is their determinate growth and hence virtually simultaneous ripening. The problem with most of the legumes, from a tax collector’s perspective, is that they produce fruit continuously over an extended period. They can be, and are, picked right along as they ripen—like beans or peas. If the tax collector arrives early, much of the crop will not yet have ripened, and if he arrives late, the taxpayer will probably have eaten, hidden, or sold much of the yield. One-stop shopping on the part of the tax collector works best for determinate-ripening crops. The cereal crops of the Old World were, in this sense, preadapted for state making. The New World—save for the mixed case of maize, which can be picked right along or left to mature and dry in the field—has few if any determinate, whole-field, simultaneously ripening crops, hence none of the harvest festival tradition that so dominates the Old World agricultural calendar. It leaves one to speculate whether determinate ripening was selected for by early Neolithic cultivators and if so, why, say, determinate ripening of chickpeas and lentils could not have been similarly selected for.
Wow so having acarbose with legumes causes the fibre to feed gut bacteria more. That’s cool.