The Strange Case of the Butter Bean

Hello,

Has anyone else eaten any butter beans whilst low carbing?

I did the other day and they had a very odd effect on my blood sugars; hardly anything.

On the tin they say that they have about 12 grams of carb per 100 g and of that 0.5 grams sugars.

For the amount I ate I would ordinarily needed to have given myself 20 units of insulin but only had 5 (as this has happened before) and that worked really well. I had them with our evening meal; they were in a chorizo stew and woke up the next day in with blood sugars in the 4.0s. So, unless I had some bizarre peak and trough in the night (which I could have to be honest) they seem to be a type of carb that I can tolerate.

Anyone else had any run ins with these beans?

On a different topic I was reading DUK the other day and thought; it's all calmed down nicely, none of the people who normally annoy me seem to be posting. I then remembered that I'd 'ignored' most of the key annoyers so I couldn't see their comments; when I unignored them dozens of idiotic posts swept back into my browser. A lesson there I think...

Best

Dillinger

Interesting!  It happens that I am cooking a big pot of butter bean & beef stew today. Beans are one of my favorite foods and I've hated the idea of giving them up. I did cook some plain pinto beans a week ago and they sent my blood sugar sky rocketing and I threw them out. I'll let you all know what the result was from my butter bean meal. I thought if it has to be I can just eat the boiled beef and leave the beans.

Douglas V wrote:Interesting!  It happens that I am cooking a big pot of butter bean & beef stew today. Beans are one of my favorite foods and I've hated the idea of giving them up. I did cook some plain pinto beans a week ago and they sent my blood sugar sky rocketing and I threw them out. I'll let you all know what the result was from my butter bean meal. I thought if it has to be I can just eat the boiled beef and leave the beans.

Would indeed be interesting to see how you get on with the meal as I have been avoiding beans of any kind for over 2 years now as I am very intolerant to them sadly but I really miss red kidney beans in my Chili (I miss them more than the rice in fact surprisingly)

Dillinger wrote:Hello,

Has anyone else eaten any butter beans whilst low carbing?

I did the other day and they had a very odd effect on my blood sugars; hardly anything.

On the tin they say that they have about 12 grams of carb per 100 g and of that 0.5 grams sugars.

For the amount I ate I would ordinarily needed to have given myself 20 units of insulin but only had 5 (as this has happened before) and that worked really well. I had them with our evening meal; they were in a chorizo stew and woke up the next day in with blood sugars in the 4.0s.  So, unless I had some bizarre peak and trough in the night (which I could have to be honest) they seem to be a type of carb that I can tolerate.

Anyone else had any run ins with these beans?

On a different topic I was reading DUK the other day and thought; it's all calmed down nicely, none of the people who normally annoy me seem to be posting. I then remembered that I'd 'ignored' most of the key annoyers so I couldn't see their comments; when I unignored them dozens of idiotic posts swept back into my browser.  A lesson there I think...

Best

Dillinger

It's the booze that dunnit!!
Kidding of course but that's quite interesting as looking at the carb content per 100g you'd think they'd be totally off limits...I may give 'em a go too and see what happens.

As for the 'Ignore' feature on the big forum-I put quite a few on there at one point and it all went quiet but I couldn't resist a 'Cheeky peek' every now and then in case they'd mentioned me! and as you say,once they'd been 'Un-ignored' it was back to business as usual with lot's of sat fat and low carb bashing.
Sells more Eatwell plates I guess...

Cheers

Paul

We haven't tried butter beans, but, back in the days when we were testing before and after every meal recording every detail and establishing a safe diet for a T2, we tried haricot, canalinni, chick peas, lentils, mung beans and aduki beans, which all passed and were added to the regular shopping list.  Aduki beans, used in a bake along with carrots, red onions, tomatoes, red pepper, chilli and soy sauce, with a celeriac mash topping, produced an amazing result:  before dinner, 3.7 mmol/L and after dinner at one and a half hours, 3.9 mmol/L.  Had I starved him all day, did he actually eat his dinner? No and yes, respectively.  
Are all these beans and lentils actually "resistant carbs", in other words, ones which don't get digested soon enough in the body to raise sugar levels?
Sally

Be interesting if you could repeat the experiment Dillinger and see if you get similar results.

Yesterday evening my wife and I had a butter bean supper. My wife got a homemade bread roll and we both got a side dish of a lettuce and tomato salad. Before supper I measured my blood sugar at 4.8, which is excellent for me and this morning, when I got up. it measured 5.6. A reading of 5.6 is very good, as I had been getting results in the range of 8.5 & 9 in the mornings before going low carb.
  My cautious concusion is that butter beans have a negligible effect on blood sugar. Maybe I should have measured my blood sugar three hours after eating. Would have, but was asleep then.  
  My recipe for the butter bean stew is the following. I used a beef pot roast, cut up into large pieces, shaken in flour, and fried brown in canola oil,  Put the fried beef in a stewing pot , added 1 liter of beef stock, one large red onion, minced and pre-cooked in the microwave first, 2 cloves of sliced garlic, two large carrots cut into big chunks , a third cup of tomato pureé, & pepper to taste. After slow cooking the beef for three hours I added   500gr  of pre-soaked butter beans and continued slow cooking until the beans were tender. Another 3 hours.   Normally the beans are much faster cooking, but were slowed this time , I believe, by the salt in the beef stock. Osoco buko beef is very fine for this dish as well.
I did think a bit about using the onions and carrots, but thought the natural sugar would be thinned out a lot in the big pot.
  So maybe we can still eat butter beans, worth a try.    Douglas

Thanks for that recipe Douglas. I am looking forward to trying it

Sorry folks only just read this thread ...... but like many previous posters since LCHF myself and Eddie have steered away from certain beans and pulses, especially butter beans and red kidney beans.

Perhaps as Sally wrote, in her earlier comment, "Are all these beans and lentils actually "resistant carbs", in other words, ones which don't get digested soon enough in the body to raise sugar levels?"

...... Any further thoughts anyone?

All the best Jan

Hi Jan,

I can't eat kidney beans; they definitely spike my blood sugars which is why I'm surprised by the butter beans.

I first had them when I went to dinner at a friends house and they had made a big salad with them. Rather than not eat at all I just cautiously bolused for them and when I got home my blood sugars were low. That's what got me thinking.

I'll try again; also I have just ordered a Freestyle Libre which will provide continuous blood sugar results, all being well, so I can do a proper test and see what happens over night with them.

Best

Dillinger

"Freestyle Libre which will provide continuous blood sugar results" I have read lots about this meter and it is a real leap forward. In my opinion every insulin user should have one on the NHS. A pity that won't happen and the costs involved will be beyond many diabetics. Hopefully as with many electronic products the cost will come down big time over time.

I agree Eddie; the Freestyle Libre is a bit expensive and I think it will be too expensive for me to have continuously but hopefully if I use it for a month or so I'll get some good data.

As I said elsewhere in an ideal world all diabetics would be on constant glucose monitors and pumps if you are on insulin, but alas this is no ideal world.

Best

Dillinger

So, I did try these with the Libre attached and got the same results; a normal steady decline of blood sugars over night with a rise at about 6:00 courtesy of the dawn phenomenon (but not a drastic one).

So, I will cautiously add these to the list of ok foods.

In another weird bit of food news last night I ate (quite a lot) of mackerel with horseradish mayonnaise and and my bloods which should have been lovely and low (zero carbs in mackerel) were really high (went to 13 at one point???) all night and have only just stabilised.

What has this little fishy, on it's little dishy done to me? Or is horseradish (not creamed) really high carb? It's all a bit odd?

I'm liking the Freestyle Libre as it allows me to wander around saying I'm "more machine than man now, twisted and evil."*

Best

Dillinger

*10 points for getting the quote but not if you look it up...

'Obi Wan Kinobi' referring to Anakin Skywalker aka Lord Vader now where's me coconut prize?

Mackerel and Horseradish? Hmmmm...could be the protein in the Mackerel if you ate a fair bit perhaps or was it the horseradish being a root and possibly quite starchy that done it? I haven't had Mackerel in ages but I too would have thought that would be kind on the BG's...It's a strange old condition this DM lark as you never know what it'll surprise you with next eh?

Cheers

Paul

10 points to Paul!

It is odd isn't it? I've said it before but with all this stuff sometimes I wonder why I bothered becoming a diabetic...

Best

Dillinger

By the way Paul apparently the teaser trailer for the new Star Wars film will be attached to the 3rd Hobbit movie this December; I can't help be a little excited about that!

Dillinger wrote:So, I did try these with the Libre attached and got the same results; a normal steady decline of blood sugars over night with a rise at about 6:00 courtesy of the dawn phenomenon (but not a drastic  one).

So, I will cautiously add these to the list of ok foods.

In another weird bit of food news last night I ate (quite a lot) of mackerel with horseradish mayonnaise and  and my bloods which should have been lovely and low (zero carbs in mackerel) were really high (went to 13 at one point???) all night and have only just stabilised.

What has this little fishy, on it's little dishy done to me? Or is horseradish (not creamed) really high carb? It's all a bit odd?

I'm liking the Freestyle Libre as it allows me to wander around saying I'm "more machine than man now, twisted and evil."*

Best

Dillinger

*10 points for getting the quote but not if you look it up...

I reckon it was the horseradish. I had far too much with some beef for lunch, unfortunately I didn't check the carbs until after I had eaten it. Horseradish is off the menu for me for a while.

Dillinger wrote:

By the way Paul apparently the teaser trailer for the new Star Wars film will be attached to the 3rd Hobbit movie this December; I can't help be a little excited about that!

Cool! They're not giving too much away at the moment about the plot and how much of a role past characters will play in episode VII but it looks like the old school characters such as ChewBacca,R2D2 and C3PO will also be in it as I did wonder if Kenny Baker and Anthony Daniels would work together again as off screen-there was no love lost there at all...Would be cool for the mighty Jabba the Hutt to make a return but with this set 30 years after his demise on the sail barge-I guess that ain't gonna happen unless via skeleton power although there is rumours of Bobba Fett making a return although I'm pretty sure he croaked it when he fell into the 'Pit of sarlacc'.

Paul wrote:

Dillinger wrote:

By the way Paul apparently the teaser trailer for the new Star Wars film will be attached to the 3rd Hobbit movie this December; I can't help be a little excited about that!

Cool! They're not giving too much away at the moment about the plot and how much of a role past characters will play in episode VII but it looks like the old school characters such as ChewBacca,R2D2 and C3PO will also be in it as I did wonder if Kenny Baker and Anthony Daniels would work together again as off screen-there was no love lost there at all...Would be cool for the mighty Jabba the Hutt to make a return but with this set 30 years after his demise on the sail barge-I guess that ain't gonna happen unless via skeleton power although there is rumours of Bobba Fett making a return although I'm pretty sure he croaked it when he fell into the 'Pit of sarlacc'.

Sorry guys, I haven't a clue who or what you are talking about BUT I had a thought .....

Do you think "The Strange Case of the Butter Bean" would make a good film title .....perhaps a cartoon even?

I know that Friday Feeling has got to me

All the best Jan