Vicia faba, also known in the culinary sense as the broad bean, fava bean, or faba bean, is a species of vetch, a flowering plant in the pea and bean family Fabaceae. It is widely cultivated as a crop for human consumption, and also as a cover crop.

Are faba beans the same as fava beans?

Fava beans are the edible seeds of the legume crop Vicia faba, otherwise known as faba beans, horse beans, or broad beans. ... Duc, 1997 Regardless of the name and colour, these pulses are consumed by humans worldwide, although the majority of fava crops are a key source of livestock feed.

Why are fava beans bad for you?

But fava beans are also the cause of a potentially deadly genetic disease called favism, which is a dangerous type of anemia caused by eating fava beans, or even by exposure to fava flower pollen. In susceptible individuals, naturally occurring chemicals in favas are converted to red blood cell-damaging compounds.