By: Emma Slattery, Student NutritionistIt starts out with a minor inquiry: are tomatoes a fruit or a vegetable? In a ruling from the US Supreme court in 1893, tomatoes were declared a vegetable. BUT anyone who has taken an entry level biology or plant science class might remember that fruits have seeds, and tomatoes have seeds. So would that make them a fruit? But if you think closer peppers have seeds too and peppers are commonly classified as vegetables. So what is the real difference between a fruit and vegetable???? When it comes to plants there are two different classification systems: botanical and culinary. Botanical classification: Plants have 4 parts to them: The fruit: grows out of the flower of the plant and is the plant ovary containing seeds to make more plants. The leaves: photosynthesize and catch sunlight The stem: transports nutrients The roots: involved in the uptake of nutrients from the soil To classify produce botanically: Fruit: pepper, tomato, cucumber, orange Leaf: kale, spinach, cabbage, turnip greens Stem: asparagus, celery, rhubarb Root: carrot, potato, turnip Now that's all good and fair but the tricky classification is the culinary and nutritional classification. And since we usually classify fruits and vegetables in the kitchen instead of science class, this is the one that matters.
Now that we have settled out for botanical and culinary definitions, the final part is nutrition. And nutritional definitions are the same as culinary, but for different reasons. The tastes that differentiate the savory fruits from their sweeter counterparts also represent a shift in nutrients. Sweet and tart fruits have a different nutrient profile than the savory fruits, putting the savory fruits into a category more similar to root, stem, and leaf vegetables. But, most importantly, the answer to the age old question: is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable.
Technically, it's both!
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ABOUTTerps With Taste is run by the Student Nutritionist Team with University of Maryland Dining Services. We write content for students, by students. Enjoy! Categories
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