Comparing PUFA in beans. Not so bad?

valzim

Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2021
Messages
105
Location
Louisiana
I do eat cow and like lamb, chicken and turkey, occasionally fish but getting less and less. Beans agree with me but I started to not eat them so much as Ray Peat says they have PUFAs. I miss them so I started doing a little research to compare the Omega 3 and 6 content in different foods.

First is seed oils and seeds. Holy ***t these are bad. The amount is per 100 grams or 3.5 ounces. (That's the chart I found) Might be no way anyone on this board consumes that much at one sitting. But for people eating the SAD diet, it probably isn't. I wonder how much canola oil is in a bag of chips. Or French fries. Anyone know? I'm only listing a few but damn these oils are bad. Even olive oil has a good amount. Coconut oil and macadamia nut oil are way better.

Food Omega 6 Omega 3 Total PUFA
Safflower Oil 74,615 mg 0 74,615 mg
Soybean Oil 50, 293 mg 7,033 mg 57,326 mg
Olive Oil 9,763 mg 761 mg 10,524 mg
Coconut Oil 1,800 mg 0 1,800 mg
Walnuts 38,092 mg 9,079 mg 47,171 mg
Almonds 12,053 mg 6 mg 12,059 mg
Macadmia 1,296 mg 206 mg 1,502 mg

Then went to fish: Tuna is not bad. I'm from Louisiana so glad that crawfish is pretty low too.

Food Omega 6 Omega 3 Total PUFA
Wild Salmon 172 mg 2,586 mg 2,758 mg
Sardines 110 mg 1,480 mg 1,590 mg
Yellowfin Tuna 10 mg 243 mg 253 mg
Crawfish 76 mg 184 mg 260 mg


Next is the common animals we eat and eggs. As expected, the red meats are very low, turkey and chicken not too bad. I like lamb and am surprised how much Omega 6 it has. I guess it's just a more fatty cut.

Food Omega 6 Omega 3 Total PUFA
Ground Beef 732 mg 80 mg 802 mg
Turkey Breast 772 mg 56 mg 882 mg Dark meat turkey has about 3x more PUFA (2,646 mg)
Chicken Breast 1,117 mg 82 mg 1,199 mg Same here. 3 x more for dark meat (3,597 mg)
Lamb shoulder 1,918 mg 543 mg 2,461 mg
2 scrambled eggs 2,500 mg 58 mg 2,558 mg

Now lets do beans, legumes and lentils. I'll put tofu here too, which has high amounts of 6 and 3. But to me, the other beans do not seem so bad. Maybe the endotoxin issue would be a problem for some. But if that's not an issue, should beans be a part of a balanced diet? This is measured as per 1 cup, but probably a meal of beans needs to be 1 1/2 - 2 cups depending how hungry you are, so adjust accordingly.

Food Omega 6 Omega 3 Total PUFA
TOFU (1 cup) 10,934 mg 1,467 mg 12,401 mg
Pinto 168 mg 234 mg 402 mg
Black 217 mg 181 mg 398 mg
Lentils 271 mg 73 mg 344 mg
Great Northern 182 mg 149 mg 331 mg

So thoughts?
I'm going to start adding more beans and less chicken and turkey. And only white meat if I need to eat it. Even 2 cups of beans would not be over 1 gram of PUFA total. The beans do have a bit more Omega. How much worse are Omega 3s vs 6s? I will eat crawfish occasionally and won't be so afraid of Tuna occasionally. Beef is good choice.
I'll continue to eat eggs, just not every day.
 
B

Blaze

Guest
I do eat cow and like lamb, chicken and turkey, occasionally fish but getting less and less. Beans agree with me but I started to not eat them so much as Ray Peat says they have PUFAs. I miss them so I started doing a little research to compare the Omega 3 and 6 content in different foods.

First is seed oils and seeds. Holy ***t these are bad. The amount is per 100 grams or 3.5 ounces. (That's the chart I found) Might be no way anyone on this board consumes that much at one sitting. But for people eating the SAD diet, it probably isn't. I wonder how much canola oil is in a bag of chips. Or French fries. Anyone know? I'm only listing a few but damn these oils are bad. Even olive oil has a good amount. Coconut oil and macadamia nut oil are way better.

Food Omega 6 Omega 3 Total PUFA
Safflower Oil 74,615 mg 0 74,615 mg
Soybean Oil 50, 293 mg 7,033 mg 57,326 mg
Olive Oil 9,763 mg 761 mg 10,524 mg
Coconut Oil 1,800 mg 0 1,800 mg
Walnuts 38,092 mg 9,079 mg 47,171 mg
Almonds 12,053 mg 6 mg 12,059 mg
Macadmia 1,296 mg 206 mg 1,502 mg

Then went to fish: Tuna is not bad. I'm from Louisiana so glad that crawfish is pretty low too.

Food Omega 6 Omega 3 Total PUFA
Wild Salmon 172 mg 2,586 mg 2,758 mg
Sardines 110 mg 1,480 mg 1,590 mg
Yellowfin Tuna 10 mg 243 mg 253 mg
Crawfish 76 mg 184 mg 260 mg


Next is the common animals we eat and eggs. As expected, the red meats are very low, turkey and chicken not too bad. I like lamb and am surprised how much Omega 6 it has. I guess it's just a more fatty cut.

Food Omega 6 Omega 3 Total PUFA
Ground Beef 732 mg 80 mg 802 mg
Turkey Breast 772 mg 56 mg 882 mg Dark meat turkey has about 3x more PUFA (2,646 mg)
Chicken Breast 1,117 mg 82 mg 1,199 mg Same here. 3 x more for dark meat (3,597 mg)
Lamb shoulder 1,918 mg 543 mg 2,461 mg
2 scrambled eggs 2,500 mg 58 mg 2,558 mg

Now lets do beans, legumes and lentils. I'll put tofu here too, which has high amounts of 6 and 3. But to me, the other beans do not seem so bad. Maybe the endotoxin issue would be a problem for some. But if that's not an issue, should beans be a part of a balanced diet? This is measured as per 1 cup, but probably a meal of beans needs to be 1 1/2 - 2 cups depending how hungry you are, so adjust accordingly.

Food Omega 6 Omega 3 Total PUFA
TOFU (1 cup) 10,934 mg 1,467 mg 12,401 mg
Pinto 168 mg 234 mg 402 mg
Black 217 mg 181 mg 398 mg
Lentils 271 mg 73 mg 344 mg
Great Northern 182 mg 149 mg 331 mg

So thoughts?
I'm going to start adding more beans and less chicken and turkey. And only white meat if I need to eat it. Even 2 cups of beans would not be over 1 gram of PUFA total. The beans do have a bit more Omega. How much worse are Omega 3s vs 6s? I will eat crawfish occasionally and won't be so afraid of Tuna occasionally. Beef is good choice.
I'll continue to eat eggs, just not every day.
Very good list for pufa reference.

Thoughts----apparently if your biggest desire is to keep pufa low, any non-fat food like beans or tuna will suffice and have low pufa because they contain almost no fat and pufa is certainly a fat molecule.
 
OP
V

valzim

Member
Joined
Feb 21, 2021
Messages
105
Location
Louisiana
If beans are soaked for 24 hours and cooked in pressure cooker, the lectins are greatly rreduced.
 
B

Blaze

Guest
If beans are soaked for 24 hours and cooked in pressure cooker, the lectins are greatly rreduced.
Tough to be 100 percent against beans, a staple in Mexico and associated with very good health and longevity in groups like the Raramuri in Chihuahua. Prepared properly , beans should not be an issue for most. The downside-very high in phosphate and should be balanced with a lot of dietary calcium to avoid leeching calcium from your bones. (Same for meat intake) There are no low leptin legumes. Proper preparation and cooking is essential. You nailed it when you said:

"Beans are soaked for 24 hours and then cooked in pressure cooker"

I have benefited much from what I consider to be brilliant advice and sound science from Ray Peat.
But, Ray should , in my humble opinion, differentiate more between toxic seed oil pufas and other pufa sources because the amounts in very lean chicken, pork and fish are actually often quite a small dose. All non-fat foods will be lower in Pufa.

Toxic seed oils and some nuts and rancid fish oils are often a megadose of Pufa and can damage us greatly.

Pufa is ubiquitous in foods and impossible to avoid. Food sources that are very low in Pufa like tuna, beans, lean meats, shrimp etc.... are not a big problem and should not be warned against to the same degree as the toxic seed oils.
 
Last edited by a moderator:

Atman

Member
Joined
Dec 10, 2016
Messages
393
Meat, eggs and dairy are just superior in every way, but a few beans now and then just for the taste as a side dish is fine for me.
 

dukesbobby777

Member
Joined
Sep 22, 2020
Messages
633
I know the thinking behind this thread because Peat has mentioned the beans several times when listing high PUFA foods, which has always confused me because he always speaks of context, and a plateful of beans are not high in PUFA. If they are baked and have been stripped of their nasty skins, they have even less PUFAs. Like the others have said above, it’s their effect on the gut which seems to promote bad effects. Personally, for myself, they have bad effects on my mood (perhaps having serotonin/estrogen increasing effects). So I believe Peat when he speaks about them in a negative way, and, even though they taste pretty good, I largely avoid them.

He also lists beans quite often when speaking of high phosphate foods and again, they are just one of hundreds of foods that probably have high phosphate (with little calcium to balance). He obviously isn’t a fan of the humble bean.
 

CLASH

Member
Joined
Sep 15, 2017
Messages
1,219
Beans are indeed low in PUFA, and pressure cooking/ soaking/ sprouting can reduce alot of "anti-nutrients" like phytate. They aren't a horrific food but consumption depends on context.

However, as previously mentioned they pale in comparison to animal foods as far as nutrition goes:
1) the protein they contain is much less bioavailable. Also the amino acid profile is poor
2) they are harder to digest, require much more preparation to make digestible and even then there still may be issues like trypsin inhibitors, lectins, fermentable fiber, harder to digest starches etc.
3) the nutrients that may be present in beans seem to not be as bioavailable overall; they are not technically "meant to be eaten"
4) I'd argue that our digestive tract is set up more so to digest fruit, meat, fat and tubers than beans (and also grains).

Again, with all of this said, I think beans aren't the devil; but on the spectrum of quality of foods I wouldn't say they are ideal. Because certain groups incorporated them into thier diet and had more health than the current societal paradigm isn't an argument for them being optimal; I think many other factors have to be taken into consideration. I also think that individual tolerance is always something important to consider in any argument around food and supps etc.
 

gaze

Member
Joined
Jun 13, 2019
Messages
2,270
ray seems to have a pretty strong aversion and personal bias against beans, i think anything that causes gas and is a "poverty food" is disgusting to him, as if eating it is an insult to life itself. however I think rays experience was largely based on seeing his friends and fellow mexicans survive on beans, rice, pufas, etc and get sick and obese which left a lasting impact on him. many of the food ray dislikes are staples in the mexican diet, such as flour tortillas, un nixtamlized corn, pufa oils, beans. in an interview he also said when he was in mexico he would always get bronchitis and lose a lot of weight, and when he would return to america and live on milkshakes he would get healthy again. basically his experiences have strongly shaped his own ideas but yours can be different if you have a different experience
 

Vins7

Member
Joined
Feb 23, 2020
Messages
900
Meat, eggs and dairy are just superior in every way, but a few beans now and then just for the taste as a side dish is fine for me.
Beans are low in tryptophane, methionine and cysteine, not the same in animal protein.
 

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom