● Food Intelligence · Legume
Across 6,130 logged refried bean meals, Signos members averaged +37.6 mg/dL — but the tortillas, chips, and rice underneath are doing most of that work. Refried beans as a plain side averaged +34.1 mg/dL across 3,313 baseline logs; pile them onto bean dip with tortilla chips and the average climbs to +44.9 mg/dL (+11 mg/dL), or into a tostada at +45.2 mg/dL. The mashed pinto itself sits at GI 38.
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Yes — moderately. Across 6,130 logged refried bean meals, the average glucose peak was +37.6 mg/dL, with 57.5% of responses exceeding +30 mg/dL. In our cohort of 6,130 refried bean logs, the median peak was +34 mg/dL and the IQR ran from +22 to +50 mg/dL — a wide spread driven mostly by Mexican-restaurant context (burrito, taco, chips). As a plain side, refried beans anchored at +34.1 mg/dL across 3,313 baseline logs. Three levers dominate the outcome: total meal carb load (≥60g pushed peaks 48.7% higher, n=2,445, p<0.001), pairing context (bean dip with chips and tostada bases each added +11 mg/dL over the side-dish baseline), and meal timing (morning logs averaged 22.3% lower peaks). The mashed preparation digests faster than whole beans — a GI 38 vs. GI 30 for black beans — but the burrito wrapper and chips are doing most of the work. These are observational, not causal findings.
Some members spike +29.8 mg/dL. Others spike +49.7. The only way to know how you'll spike is to measure with a Signos CGM.
Refried beans are mashed pinto beans (traditionally cooked with lard, increasingly with oil), with a published GI of 38 and GL of 10 — a few points higher than whole pinto or black beans because the mashing process disrupts the cell-wall matrix that normally slows starch digestion. Across 6,130 logged refried-bean meals in the Signos cohort, the average peak was +37.6 mg/dL — but as a plain side dish, the baseline averaged just +34.1 mg/dL across 3,313 logs. The dominant lever is total meal carb load: meals at ≥60g total carbs spiked 48.7% higher than the low-carb baseline (CI: +13.35 to +15.69 mg/dL, n=2,445, p<0.001). Pairing context layers on the next-biggest effect: bean dip with chips averaged +44.9 mg/dL (+11 mg/dL vs. baseline) and a tostada averaged +45.2 mg/dL (+11). Morning timing adds a secondary buffer — morning refried-bean logs ran 22.3% lower than later-day meals (CI: −10.4 to −6.78 mg/dL, n=447, p<0.001), an observational pattern consistent with diurnal insulin sensitivity.
This page draws on Signos CGM data collected between March 2025 and April 2026, covering 6,130 logged refried-bean meals from 2,885 unique members (the broader cohort that powers the modifier and pairing analysis). The single-item sub-cohort — meals where refried beans were logged alone — covers only 78 meals (69 members), too small to be the primary stat anchor; the broader cohort is used instead, with the side-dish baseline (n=3,313) serving as the cleanest within-cohort reference point. All cohorts are filtered to meals with a measured glucose rise between 0 and 100 mg/dL (ppgr_case='regular'). Modifier effects were estimated using Welch's t-test on matched pairs; all reported effects carry p<0.001 unless noted. Because glucose response distributions are right-skewed, the reported broader-cohort mean is +37.6 mg/dL while the median is +34 mg/dL. Refried-bean meals were identified via regex matching on logged food names. A minimum of 30 matched meals is required for any pairing slot to appear in the recipe builder.