Are peanuts and young peas beans? Are soybeans and black beans grains that can be used to make congee? Are potatoes, sweet potatoes, Chinese yams, and taro grains or vegetables? These questions can probably be summarized as the dilemma of "food categorization."
Someone might wonder: Isn't it just a classification? Why be so particular? In fact, food categorization is not just a matter of classification or naming, but it is also very important for us to arrange our daily nutritional supply. Because the nutritional value of each major food category is similar, and they can often be substituted for each other; whereas foods of different categories have vastly different nutritional values, making substitution more difficult. Below, from a nutritional perspective, let's discuss these "crossover foods" one by one.
Peanuts are classified as "nuts and oilseeds" and can substitute for nuts. Botanically, peanuts are indeed the seeds of leguminous plants. However, in terms of nutritional composition, peanuts are more similar to most nuts and differ greatly from most beans. Red beans, mung beans, and kidney beans contain less than 1% fat, while peanuts contain up to 40% fat. Therefore, nutritionally, peanuts are grouped with nuts. This means that in the food pyramid, eating roasted peanuts takes up the nut portion of the diet, not the soybean portion, let alone the grain portion.
Chestnuts, ginkgo nuts, and lotus seeds are considered grains and belong to the staple food ingredients. Although they are often classified as nuts or called health-preserving foods, they are actually plant seeds rich in starch, and their basic nutrient content is very similar to that of grains. For example, lotus seeds contain over 70% starch, about 12% protein, and various B vitamins, which is not very different from rice and wheat. Therefore, when planning your diet, you should count them as grains and not just as snacks, otherwise, it is easy to gain weight. Of course, ginkgo nuts and lotus seeds contain some special medicinal components that grains do not have. Therefore, they cannot be eaten in large bowls; it is best to control the daily intake to a small handful.