I collect vintage cookbooks, and the number of different ways we've found over the years to make categories of foods and list how much of each category we should eat is really astounding. There was a while around the early 1900s when "digestibility" was the key thing -- everything would warn you to never eat whole grains, and always cook vegetables until they're mushy, because eating anything with fiber would over-tax your digestive system and leave you weak and tired, because all your energy would have been used up in digesting your food. (Not surprisingly, magazines from that same period had a ton of ads for laxatives.)

Huh. Well, if you want to do that you're gonna have to pick a diet plan that does that and follow what it says, I guess. There isn't an underlying truth that will guide you.

I know, dang it. I think what I'm hanging on to (other than Facebook lady's pronouncements) is from way back in my Weight Watchers days, when they were really clear that "starchy vegetables" (mostly corn and potatoes, IIRC) were bad, but "non-starchy vegetables" (more or less everything else, including carrots), were okay. But I disremember where various bean types fell into categories.

I googled, and Mayo Clinic says edamame is a vegetable. So, boom. Done. (There is no website called isitavegetable. com. I checked.)

I just pulled out a vegetarian cook book from 1910. There's a long section on nutrition at the back. It says:

In the accompanying tables of food values, ..., the nutritive food elements are classified under four heads: protein, or that which builds muscle and other tissue; fat and carbohydrates, which supply heat and energy; and the ash, or mineral, which contains elements needed to repair bones and nerves. Gluten, found principally in wheat; albumen, in eggs and meat; casein, in milk; fibrin, in flesh; and legumin, in legumes, are proteins. According to scientific research, it has been found that to nourish the body properly it must be supplied with about five times as much of the carbohydrates as of the protein.

This is a matter all should understand, for thus much inconvenience may be avoided.

The table then lists a bunch of foods, with the amount of Refuse (I think that's fiber), Water, Protein, Fat, Carbohydrates, Ash, and "Total Nutritive Value" in each.

Honestly, I think trusting the opposite of whatever all-up-in-your-business-facebook-friend says sounds like the best diet plan ever.

Oh, and the table has two main categories: Animal Food and Vegetable Food. "Vegetables" is a sub-category under Vegetable Food, and beans are listed there. (Though, "Soups" is also a subcategory of Vegetable Food, with Beef Soup listed.)

Chocolate and coffee are both under "Miscellaneous," under Vegetable Food.

Oh, I'd forgotten about this part! Good and bad combinations of foods. Good combinations: Grains and eggs, Grains and vegetables, Grains and fruits, Milk and grains. Bad combinations: Fruit and vegetables, Fats with fruits or vegetables, Milk and meat. There is no explanation given for this.

Honestly, I think trusting the opposite of whatever all-up-in-your-business-facebook-friend says sounds like the best diet plan ever.

She also snottily refers to soda pop as "corn water". (Because it's sweetened with HFCS, get it? And who would be dumb enough to drink "corn water"??? Parents should only give their kids water, but not tap water because OMG it's full of impurities!) (She's a little weird about food.) (To say the least.)

Chocolate and coffee are both under "Miscellaneous,"

I love Miscellaneous!

There is no website called isitavegetable. com. I checked.

So, business opportunity, then?