There are other good reasons besides convenience for including beans in your meals. Nutritionally, most beans are loaded with fiber, phytochemicals, folate, potassium, protein, magnesium, vitamin B-6, zinc, copper and iron. If you haven't touched a bean dish in a long time, don't pig out, simply start small and slowly increase beans so your stomach has time to adjust. When it comes to versatility in meals, bean-lovers can dine on beans from a different cuisine every day of the week. And don't forget the American favorites of black-eyed peas, baked beans, chili beans, and navy bean or lentil soup.
Some people avoid canned beans because of the salt used in the canning process.
That's a poor excuse, since all you need to do is rinse canned beans in a sieve to wash away the salt. To get the most salt out, drain and rinse canned beans in a colander under running cold water for one minute. In a lab test, on average, in brands that started with 230 mg to 360 mg of sodium, nearly 25 percent of the sodium was rinsed away. In brands that started with 600 mg to 675 mg, rinsing washed away about a third of the sodium. If this is not enough of a reduction for you, low-sodium brands are available.