Why aren't they veggies?

From:  "Nick" 

Why aren't french fries and popcorn considered vegetables when they're just cooked potatoes and corn?

TB responded with this answer: 

A vegetable is an edible part of a part. Popcorn and fries are end products of vegetables usually prepared by unhealthy means. When you are eating a fry, you are eating potatoes and grease and a unhealthy dose of salt. This is high in carbohydrates, sodium and fats. Popcorn is also generally high in fats (butter/oil) and sodium. It also has little nutrition to boot.

R pointed this out: 

A Potato is not a veggie in the first place. Its considered a starch.

SomewhatDamaged gave us their views: 

A vegetable is a plant cultivated for an edible part, such as the root of the beet, the leaf of spinach, or the flower buds of broccoli or cauliflower. Once another substance (i.e. - grease) is added to the mix, it becomes something else. Just like ketchup isn't called Tomatoes. A potato is a potato, french fries are a snack made primarily out of potatoes.

halfpassed believes this: 

The reason popcorn isn't considered a vegetable is because it undergoes a bunch of changes. The actual composition of the kernel, the stuff that becomes the white, fluffy stuff that is popcorn, changes. The small amount of water in it starts to heat up and, in about one-one thousandth of a second, expands 1700 times its size, producing the "pop" and the blossom, the white stuff. So, basically it undergoes a chemical change, and is no longer "corn". As far as french fries, they're probably just too greasy to be classified as food anymore.

veg summed it up with this: 

because french fries are deep fried in oil, something that is NOT healthy. and popcorn has butter, fat, and salt on them NOT healthy.