# Are beans a vegetable?

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-beans-a-vegetable/459874>\
**Category:** Factual Questions\
**Created:** [August 13, 2008, 6:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-beans-a-vegetable/459874 "2008-08-13T18:03:12Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Terminus\_Est](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/terminus_est/32/3087_2.png) [@Terminus\_Est](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Terminus_Est)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 3:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-beans-a-vegetable/459874/21 "2008-08-14T03:03:10Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=sunacres]  
Why is this being danced around so? Beans are part of the fruit, or reproductive part of a plant. The non-reproductive parts are vegetables. In some contexts all parts of a plant are considered vegetable (as in animal, vegetable or mineral). But otherwise beans are fruit.  
[/QUOTE]

As I said above, beans (dry beans, to be specific) are _seeds_. They are found inside the fruit, which is the pod.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\
**Post date:** [August 14, 2008, 3:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-beans-a-vegetable/459874/22 "2008-08-14T03:09:24Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=Yllaria]  
And to confuse matters further, some nutrition charts and lists categorize them as Meat, because they can be eaten as a source of protein.  
[/QUOTE]

Can we identify these charts so we can attempt to correct this idiocy?

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/are-beans-a-vegetable/459874.md?page=1)