Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community

Tilted Forum Project Discussion Community (https://thetfp.com/tfp/)
-   Tilted Food (https://thetfp.com/tfp/tilted-food/)
-   -   Fruit or Vegetable? (https://thetfp.com/tfp/tilted-food/29097-fruit-vegetable.html)

collide 09-26-2003 03:17 PM

Fruit or Vegetable?
 
Okay, so I learned today that pumpkins (or any kind of squash) are actually fruits, not vegetables. For some reason I've always thought of them as vegetables. Then I was reminded of the trick that I use to tell vegetable from fruit: if it has a seed in it, then it's a fruit. If not, then it's a vegetable. Is this accurate?

So...
pomegranate = fruit
avocado = fruit
potato = vegetable(?)
radish = vegetable

So would a tomato be a fruit or vegetable?

How about coconuts? Would this be a fruit? vegetable? nut? or what? (heh, that rhymed)

There must be a better way to go about this. Know any tips?

hotdogg 09-26-2003 05:41 PM

Direct from Dictionary.com:
A fruit is actually the sweet, ripened ovary or ovaries of a seed-bearing plant. A vegetable, in contrast, is an herbaceous plant cultivated for an edible part (seeds, roots, stems, leaves, bulbs, tubers, or nonsweet fruits). So, to be really nitpicky, a fruit could be a vegetable, but a vegetable could not be a fruit.
The Nutriquest team offers a similar answer, adding that most fruits are sweet because they contain a simple sugar called fructose, while most vegetables are less sweet because they have much less fructose. The sweetness of fruit encourages animals to eat it and thereby spread the seeds. The site also presents an interesting list of fruits that are often thought to be vegetables:

tomatoes
cucumbers
squashes and zucchini
avocados
green, red, and yellow peppers
peapods
pumpkins
But hey, what about the nut? Well, according to our friends at The Straight Dope, a nut is actually a "a dry, one-seeded, usually oily fruit."
Potato potahto, tomato tomahto, let's call the whole thing off.

collide 09-26-2003 05:54 PM

Peapods... whodathunkit?

Okay, so what about coconuts? IIRC, a coconut has no seed(s), so I guess it's considered a vegetable? And does that mean that coconut milk is really vegetable juice? Horrors!

BuddyHawks 09-26-2003 06:08 PM

Here's my deffinition that solves all the confusion: If there is a starbust flavor for it, it's a fruit. Meaning tomatoes, pumpkins, pickles, cucumbers, peppers, they are all veges.
I don't go with the dictionary, I go with my mouth.


All times are GMT -8. The time now is 10:25 AM.

Powered by vBulletin® Version 3.8.7
Copyright ©2000 - 2026, vBulletin Solutions, Inc.
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.6.0 PL2
© 2002-2012 Tilted Forum Project


1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73