# What Are 'Dry Beans'? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 7, 2003, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dry-beans/167069 "2003-04-07T14:48:47Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 3\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Surreal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/eada6e/32.png) [@Surreal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Surreal)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2003, 2:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dry-beans/167069/1 "2003-04-07T14:48:47Z")
Per the U.S. FDA food pyramid- [http://www.nalusda.gov/fnic/Fpyr/pyramid.gif](http://www.nalusda.gov/fnic/Fpyr/pyramid.gif) You are supposed to eat 2-3 servings per day from the food group labeled ‘Meat, Poultry, Fish, Dry Beans, Eggs & Nuts’ group. What do they mean when they say ‘dry beans’? Are these somehow different from cooked beans?? What are you supposed to do, eat them straight out of the bag? Thanks. ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2003, 3:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dry-beans/167069/2 "2003-04-07T15:46:59Z")
It probably refers to (rehydrated and cooked) dried pulses, such as haricot beans, chickpeas, kidney beans, lentils etc, as opposed to green beans, where the whole pod is eaten (often before the seeds fully develop) and something like broad(fava) or flageolet beans which may be eaten as ‘beans’, not pods, but at an unripe stage, where the seeds are not fully packed with carbs/protein. ---
**Author:** ![Yossarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/9de0a6/32.png) [@Yossarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yossarian)\ **Post date:** [April 7, 2003, 3:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-are-dry-beans/167069/3 "2003-04-07T15:55:47Z")
It just means you measure the beans from the “dry”, rather than the cooked, state to determine serving size. [http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2000/document/build.htm](http://www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines/dga2000/document/build.htm)