Do You Really Need To Eat 2 Cups of Beans a Day To Hit Your Fiber Goals?
We taking a closer look at #BeanTok.
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Fiber-maxxing has put one food front and center that dietitians have been encouraging people to eat for decades: beans! This has led to a viral #BeanTok trend where dietitians, influencers, and other TikTokers post about how they like to incorporate more beans into their diet. Some are aiming to eat 2 cups of beans a day, while others are opting for 2 cans of beans per day. Although eating more pulses is a fabulous trend, there is also a lot of misinformation being disseminated about the benefits of beans. Keep reading to find out why this dietitian recommends eating beans daily, how much will help your health, and which bean benefits are actually a myth.
Is Eating 2 Cups of Beans a Day Bad for You?
The average American eats 15 to 16 grams of fiber daily, which is about half of the recommended daily amount of 25 to 38 grams. In many of the #BeanTok videos, influencers recommend eating one or two cans of beans in one day — some do it throughout the day, while others do it in one sitting. One 15-ounce can of beans has between 20 to 30 grams of fiber, which meet the recommended daily fiber goals. Two 15-ounce cans provides 40 to 60 grams of fiber, at which point you will surpass your daily fiber goals. Going overboard in any nutrients, even fiber, means that you are most likely not getting enough other nutrients. Plus, it will give you a huge stomach ache! A healthy diet is a balancing act — and going to an extreme on any one food may lead to unwanted side effects.
Others on TikTok choose to eat 1/2 cup, 1 cup, or even 2 cups of beans as their daily goal. That equates to 5 to 8 grams, 11 to 15 grams, and about 30 grams of fiber, respectively. These goals are much more reasonable — but what does the science say?
What Does the Research Say?
A 2025 published food modeling study examined the effects of replacing protein with 1/2 cup of canned beans in equal calorie measures. Varieties included kidney beans, black beans, chickpeas, and pinto beans. Researchers found that adding 1 to 2 servings of beans — or a 1/2 cup to 1 cup — improved the intake of under consumed nutrients including iron, magnesium, potassium, and folate by 6 to 7-percent, and 10 to 13-percent, respectively, compared to a typical U.S. eating pattern.
Those substituting 1 to 2 servings of beans daily also had a total higher Healthy Eating Index (HEI) score, which compares dietary recommendations to how people in the U.S. are actually eating. The higher your HEI, the closer you are to following the dietary recommendations. Researchers concluded that adding 1/2 to 1 cup of canned beans can significantly increase those shortfall nutrients and improve diet quality.
Other Benefits of Beans
When watching many of the #BeanTok videos, some of the claims made are backed up by science, while others tout benefits that just aren’t true. Some of the research-backed benefits of beans include helping to manage blood sugar, appetite control, and fighting inflammation.
When it comes to inflammation, darker colored beans, like black beans, have higher amounts of phytochemicals, more antioxidants, higher amounts of phenolic compounds, and a more diverse profile of polyphenols compared to lighter colored beans. These compounds provide anti-inflammatory antioxidants that may help play a role in the prevention of obesity, diabetes, heart disease, and diabetes. Further, the resistant starch in beans, which is a type of fiber, provides food for the good bacteria in your gut and helps promote a healthy gut microbiome, which may also help decrease inflammation.
Bean Myths To Watch Out For
Other claims that aren’t accurate are that beans help decrease anxiety, lead to clear skin, and remove cortisol and histamine from the body. When it comes to easing anxiety, beans do provide magnesium, which can help lower stress hormones and tryptophan, which makes feel-good serotonin. However, it’s a stretch to say that eating beans alone decreases your anxiety. As for skin health, attributing any major shifts in your skin to beans is a bit of an exaggeration. Lastly, beans don’t remove cortisol and histamine from the body.
A Note About Beans and Perimenopause
With many women suffering from perimenopause symptoms, it’s become a mission of sorts to find simple ways to alleviate them. Some #BeanTokers attribute eating beans to helping with brain fog and other symptoms of perimenopause. (I dig deep into the foods helping with these shorter-term pesky perimenopause symptoms in my new cookbook, The Empowered Menopause Diet and Action Plan: Recipes and Meal Plans to Thrive Through Perimenopause, Menopause, and Beyond.) Unfortunately, the reason why these symptoms appear is due to fluctuations and eventual decline in sex hormone levels, especially estrogen and progesterone. While the fiber and protein in beans can help support healthy blood sugar levels and promote fullness, which can in turn be especially beneficial as hormonal changes may contribute to fluctuations in appetite and hunger cues, beans aren't a direct fix for perimenopause. If you’re experiencing any sort of medical issue, your first course of action should always be to see a qualified healthcare provider.
Managing the Side Effects of Eating Beans
Many viewers of #BeanTok videos also voiced concern about bloating and gassiness when eating beans. If you choose to up your fiber in any way, like adding lots of beans to your diet, do it slowly! Your body needs to adjust to the increase of fiber, and it takes a bit of time to do so. Plus, when consuming fiber, you also want to drink a lot of fluids like water.
Tasty Ways to Enjoy Beans
Many TikTokers address how to make beans taste good. Some of the most popular ways include:
- Make a Dense Bean Salad: Simply mix 3 different cans of beans with various vegetables and herbs, then toss them in a vinaigrette dressing, like in this Kale and Fennel Dense Bean Salad recipe from Food Network Kitchen.
- Add In Seasoned Brown Beans: Some #BeanTokers recommend baked or brown beans with added sugar as a flavorful way to enjoy your daily fiber intake — and as a registered dietitian, I couldn’t agree more.
- Add Pureed Beans to Dessert Batters: You need not limit your beans to savory dishes; instead add them into desserts. You can easily do this by pulsing down cannellini beans for banana bread or adding pureed black beans into brownies.
- Add Beans to Your Breakfast or Lunch Smoothie: White or red beans can easily be added into a variety of smoothie recipes.
Bottom Line: Eating beans on a daily basis has many health benefits. However, you can reap those benefits with 1/2 to 1 cup of beans daily, and by using them in a vareity of tasty recipes.
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