Great northern beans are white common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), the same species as kidney, pinto, black and navy beans. In a Cook’s Illustrated test of cooked beans, great northerns averaged 0.69 inch long, between navy beans (0.52 inch) and cannellini (0.9 inch). Tasters found the flavor nearly identical in all three, and great northerns came out as the best stand-in for cannellini. Nebraska grows more of them than any other US state.
Cooked, one cup (177 g) has 209 calories, 14.7 g of protein, 12.4 g of fiber and 181 µg of folate, which is 45% of the daily value. The iron is harder to use. In a trial of 13 women, only about 2% of the iron from great northern and pinto bean meals was absorbed, and vitamin C from orange juice roughly tripled it.
Research on this bean by name is thin. The human studies that name it are small tests of blood sugar and iron, and the cholesterol and gut-cell findings come from hamsters and lab dishes. Where this page uses studies of white beans or of pulses as a group, each card says so.
Health benefits of great northern beans
The top findings from 12 studies, strongest evidence first
What the stars mean
- Strong. Several randomized trials, pooled in a meta-analysis, point the same way, or regulators (FDA or EFSA) have approved the claim.
- Moderate. Good randomized trials support it, but there are fewer of them, or their results vary.
- Limited. Small, short or single trials, or mixed results. Promising, but it needs confirmation.
Population and lab studies get no stars: they show a link or a mechanism, not proof.
How we rate evidence →- ★★★Lower “bad” LDL cholesterol, from pulses in generalEating about 130 g a day of pulses (beans, lentils, chickpeas and peas) lowered LDL a little (by 0.14 mmol/L across 38 trials). The study was not on great northern beans alone.
- ★Smaller blood sugar rise than rice or potatoIn healthy adults, six beans including great northern gave a blood sugar rise about 53 to 56% of that after corn, rice, pasta or potato. A quarter cup of great northern beans did not beat corn.
- ★Little iron absorbed, but vitamin C helpsIn 13 women, only about 2% of the iron in great northern or pinto bean meals was absorbed. Adding vitamin C from orange juice roughly tripled it.
- ★Bigger gut hormone response after a bean mealMen who ate a white bean meal had double the response of the gut hormone cholecystokinin, compared with a low-fiber rice meal. The study did not measure hunger.
- ★Some bean starch escapes digestionIn six healthy volunteers, about 16.5% of the starch in cooked white beans came through the small intestine undigested, partly protected inside bean cell walls. The study measured digestion, not health effects.
All 12 studies, strongest evidence first
Pulses as a group (beans, lentils, chickpeas and peas) lowered LDL cholesterol by 0.14 mmol/L in trials
Meta-analysis of 38 randomized trials (2,095 people) of whole pulses, not great northern beans alone. People ate a median of 130 g a day (half to two thirds of a cup) for a median of 6 weeks. HDL fell slightly (0.03 mmol/L). For beans, LDL fell further with larger amounts, up to 1 cup a day (0.25 mmol/L per half cup). The authors rated the certainty of the evidence moderate to high for most outcomes.
Great northern beans and five other beans cut the blood sugar rise to about 53 to 56% of that after corn, rice, pasta or potato
Two short trials in healthy adults. 24 people ate a quarter cup of each bean and 18 ate a half cup, and blood glucose was tracked for 2 hours. Both amounts lowered the rise against all four starchy foods, except that a quarter cup of great northern beans did not beat corn. Canadian bean and pulse grower groups and a federal agriculture department paid for the study, and two grower groups donated the beans.
Women absorbed only about 2% of the iron from great northern and pinto bean meals, and vitamin C from orange juice roughly tripled it
Randomized experiment in 13 women who ate great northern or pinto bean meals with or without vitamin C (ascorbic acid) from orange juice. Iron absorption was measured with radioactive iron tracers over 2 weeks and did not differ between the two beans. The paper mainly tested whether lab cell models predict absorption in people, and for beans they did not.
A hamburger meal with white beans raised blood sugar less than the same meal with rice or mashed potatoes
13 healthy people were tested with three meals of equal energy that contained white beans, polished rice or mashed potatoes. Stomach emptying was also slower with the bean meal than with the potato meal. The study is from 1984, does not name the bean variety, and measured only short-term blood sugar and insulin.
A meal with white beans doubled the response of the gut hormone cholecystokinin in men, compared with a low-fiber rice meal
Crossover trial: men ate a meal with white beans or a low-fiber meal with rice and dry milk, in random order, and blood was sampled for 6 hours. Blood sugar and insulin did not differ between the meals, and a marker of fat particles made in the gut (apo B48) rose more after the bean meal. The study did not measure hunger.
About 16.5% of the starch in cooked white beans escaped digestion in the small intestine of 6 volunteers
Six healthy volunteers swallowed a tube that collected fluid from the end of the small intestine after a meal with 167 g of white beans (dry weight). About 11.3 g of starch came through undigested, partly protected inside the bean cell walls. The authors note the tube method may underestimate this, and the study measured digestion, not health effects.
US adults who ate dry beans or peas took in more fiber, folate, iron and magnesium than adults who did not
Pooled dry beans and peas, not great northern beans alone. Analysis of a national US survey (NHANES, 1999 to 2002) of adults aged 19 and older, in which only 7.9% ate dry beans or peas on a given day. About half a cup also went with less saturated and total fat. This shows a link, not a cause.
Hamsters on a high-fat diet with 5% great northern beans had 62% lower plasma cholesterol and 85% lower liver cholesterol
Study in hamsters, not people. Four groups of 11 male hamsters ate a high-saturated-fat diet with or without 5% whole great northern beans (or 0.5% bean hulls) for 4 weeks. The beans raised the cholesterol leaving in the feces (neutral sterols 3.6-fold), and the hulls alone lowered plasma triglycerides by 54%.
Iron-deficient piglets regained blood iron equally well on a diet with great northern beans or small red beans
Study in piglets, not people. Piglets ate diets with 50% precooked, dehydrated beans for 4 weeks. Hemoglobin repletion efficiency was 26% with great northern beans and 30% with red beans, not a significant difference, even though red beans have more polyphenols that can bind iron.
The main protein of great northern beans, phaseolin, was fully digested by a stomach enzyme in 24 hours, and in 1 hour after boiling
Lab test with purified phaseolin and the stomach enzyme pepsin at 37 degrees C, not a study in people. At a ratio of 100 parts protein to 1 part enzyme in 50 mM acid, raw phaseolin was fully digested in 24 hours, and phaseolin heated for 30 minutes at 100 degrees C in 1 hour. The plant compounds tested did not slow digestion.
Digested great northern bean fractions lowered inflammatory signaling and oxidative stress in human gut cells in a dish
Lab study in cultured cells, not people. Black, great northern and pinto beans were soaked, cooked and digested in the lab. All three lowered inflammatory signaling triggered by TNF-alpha. Black bean was best against oxidative stress, followed by great northern, and pinto had only a low effect.
Factory extrusion of great northern beans raised the share of iron that dissolved in simulated digestion by up to 79%, but some settings destroyed up to 24% of folate
Lab study of an industrial heat-and-pressure process, not home cooking and not people. Dialyzability, a lab stand-in for absorption, rose by up to 50% for magnesium, 30% for phosphorus and 5% for potassium, and phytate fell by 46% at low moisture. The authors picked settings that keep folate losses low.
Who should be careful with great northern beans
Most people can eat great northern beans freely. Take a little care if one of these applies:
- Raw or undercooked beans. Beans contain a natural toxin, phytohaemagglutinin, that is highest in red kidney beans. The FDA says white kidney beans, another Phaseolus vulgaris variety, hold about one third as much, and it gives no figure for great northerns. Its advice for kidney beans is to soak at least 5 hours, pour the water away and boil in fresh water for at least 30 minutes, and not to cook raw beans in a slow cooker.
- Irritable bowel syndrome or a gassy gut. Monash University says legumes are naturally high in galacto-oligosaccharides, and that canned beans, or beans boiled and drained, tend to be lower in FODMAPs. It gives no serving size for great northern beans, so check its app if you follow a low-FODMAP diet.
How to choose, store and eat great northern beans
- Dry, cooked from scratch: University of Maine Extension, citing the US Dry Bean Council, lists ¾ to 1 hour of simmering for great northerns after soaking, and 1 cup of dry beans makes 2 to 3 cups cooked.
- Canned: one drained 15½-ounce can equals about 1¾ cups of cooked beans. Draining and rinsing also removes some of the sugars that cause gas.
- With vitamin C: women absorbed only about 2% of the iron from great northern and pinto bean meals, and orange juice roughly tripled it, so a squeeze of lemon or a tomato or pepper on the side is a sensible pairing.
Sort and rinse dry beans, and do not add salt or acidic foods such as tomatoes while they cook, because that slows the cooking. Keep dry beans in a cool, dry, covered non-metal container for up to a year, and cooked beans in the fridge for 3 to 4 days or in the freezer for up to 6 months.
Sources
- Bad Bug Book: foodborne pathogenic microorganisms and natural toxins, 2nd edition. Phytohaemagglutinin (kidney bean lectin). US Food and Drug Administration.
- Collins L. Including legumes on a low FODMAP diet. Monash FODMAP blog. 2016.
- How to store and cook dried beans. University of Maine Cooperative Extension. 2021.
- Beiseigel JM, Hunt JR, Glahn RP, et al. Iron bioavailability from maize and beans: a comparison of human measurements with Caco-2 cell and algorithm predictions. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007.
History of great northern beans
Every common bean, great northerns included, traces back to the Americas. Wild common beans originated in Mesoamerica, and DNA work shows the crop was domesticated twice, separately, in Mesoamerica and in the Andes, with fewer than 10% of the domestication-related sequence shared between the two. Beans reached Europe after 1492, and the first successful ones there were of Andean origin, after Francisco Pizarro’s expedition to northern Peru in 1529.
The great northern bean itself has a local origin story. According to Nebraska Extension, a 1935 seed catalog from Oscar W. Will and Co. of Bismarck, North Dakota, claimed that Oscar H. Will first got the seed in 1887 from a Hidatsa man known as Son of Star, whose tribe had grown the white bean for years. That is the seed company’s own account, so treat it as a claim.
The bean then moved west. In 1923 Chester B. Brown, a farmer near Morrill, Nebraska, bought great northern seed on a trip to Idaho because the climate and elevation looked similar. He planted 10 acres with very good results, and by 1926 neighbors had pooled money for a small bean cleaner mounted on a truck that went from field to field. Brown began handling dry beans commercially in 1927, in a rented part of a potato warehouse.
Today dry bean growing is concentrated in Nebraska’s Panhandle, with 150,000 to 200,000 acres planted a year, and Nebraska grows more great northern beans than any other state. Wikipedia describes the bean as large, flat and kidney-shaped, with a mild, nutty flavor, often added to soups and casseroles.
Sources
- Schmutz J, McClean PE, Mamidi S, et al. A reference genome for common bean and genome-wide analysis of dual domestications. Nat Genet. 2014.
- Bitocchi E, Nanni L, Bellucci E, et al. Mesoamerican origin of the common bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) is revealed by sequence data. Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012.
- Bellucci E, Benazzo A, Xu C, et al. Selection and adaptive introgression guided the complex evolutionary history of the European common bean. Nat Commun. 2023.
- Osdiek D. Panhandle Perspectives: a brief history of dry bean production in Nebraska. Nebraska Extension, IANR News. 2021.
- Cannellini bean substitute. Cook’s Illustrated.
- Phaseolus vulgaris. Wikipedia.
Frequently asked questions about great northern beans
Are great northern beans good for you?
For most people, yes. A cup of cooked beans (177 g) has 209 calories, 14.7 g of protein and 12.4 g of fiber, which is 44% of the daily fiber value. Studies that name the bean are few. The best evidence is for pulses as a group, which lowered LDL cholesterol by 0.14 mmol/L in 38 trials, a pooled result across beans, lentils, chickpeas and peas.
Are great northern beans high in protein?
Fairly high for a plant food. A cup of cooked beans has 14.7 g of protein, or 8.33 g per 100 g, and protein supplies about 31% of the calories. The live nutrition facts score the amino acid mix 100 out of 100, so no essential amino acid is in short supply.
How much calcium and folate are in great northern beans?
A cup of cooked beans (177 g) has 120 mg of calcium, 9% of the daily value, and 181 µg of folate (DFE), 45%. Per 100 g that is 68 mg and 102 µg. Folate is the standout, and it is sensitive to heat: some factory extrusion settings destroyed up to 24% of it in a lab study. No study here measured folate loss in home cooking.
Are great northern beans a good source of iron?
They contain a fair amount, 3.77 mg a cup cooked (21% of the daily value), but the body absorbs little of it. In 13 women, only about 2% of the iron from great northern and pinto bean meals was absorbed, and vitamin C from orange juice roughly tripled that. Eating beans with a vitamin C food is a sensible step if you rely on them for iron.
Do great northern beans cause gas?
They can, because beans are high in galacto-oligosaccharides, and no trial here measured gas from great northern beans. Monash University says canned beans, or beans boiled and drained, tend to be lower in FODMAPs, and that rinsing and draining removes some of these sugars. Monash gives no serving size for great northern beans.
Do you need to soak great northern beans?
University of Maine Extension lists soaking as a step: 6 to 8 hours in the fridge overnight, or a quick soak of boiling for 2 to 3 minutes and then standing for at least 1 hour. Pour the soaking water away, then simmer for about ¾ to 1 hour. Soaking also fits the FDA’s boil rules for kidney beans, which call for a soak of at least 5 hours and 30 minutes of boiling.
What is the difference between great northern, navy and cannellini beans?
Mostly size and skin. In a Cook’s Illustrated test, cooked cannellini averaged 0.9 inch, great northerns 0.69 inch and navy beans 0.52 inch, and the flavor was nearly identical. Cannellini had the thickest skins and the creamiest centers, great northerns were the best stand-in, and navy skins slipped off, which suits baked beans better than soups that need whole beans.
Are great northern beans good for blood sugar?
They may help, but the evidence is small and in healthy people. In two 2023 trials of 24 and 18 healthy adults, a quarter or half cup of six beans, great northerns among them, cut the blood sugar rise to about 53 to 56% of that after corn, rice, pasta or potato. A quarter cup of great northern beans did not beat corn. No trial here tested people with diabetes, so check portions with your care team.