Fruit or Vegetable: What Classification Do These Foods Belong To?

What age were you when you discovered that the avocado is not a vegetable, but a fruit?! This confusion is not unique to avocados, but to many other ‘vegetables’ that are actually botanically a fruit.Fortunately, distinguishing them is not so complicated because in terms of structure, taste, and nutrition, there are many distinctions between fruits and vegetables. So let's look at them first, and then explore these conflicting cases.Differences Between Fruits and VegetablesThere are two ways in which fruits and vegetables are differentiated, from a botanical and a culinary perspective.Botanically, a fruit develops from the flower of a plant, while the other parts of the plant are classified as vegetables. The main difference is that fruits contain seeds, while vegetables can be roots, stems, and leaves.On the other hand, from a culinary perspective, fruits and vegetables are classified according to taste. Fruits generally have a sweet or sour flavor and can be used in desserts, snacks, or juices, while vegetables have a milder or savory taste and are usually eaten as part of a side dish or main course. However, cooking is about creativity and innovation, so these are not restricted uses.Now, many of us have wondered if pumpkin is a fruit or vegetable or what about carrot, fruit or vegetable?, and what about lemon? According to the botanical characteristics of fruits and vegetables, pumpkin is a fruit, just like lemon, and carrot is a vegetable.There are many plants that are technically fruits, although due to their taste, they are classified as vegetables, for example, tomatoes, which have even created controversy, as in 1893, the Supreme Court of the United States ruled that they should be classified as vegetables rather than fruits, according to U.S. customs regulations.But if we remember that fruits contain seeds, then, botanically speaking, tomatoes are a fruit, but in this case, they are classified from a culinary perspective.Some other common examples of fruits that are often confused with vegetables are squash, avocados, cucumbers, peppers, and eggplants.The most curious thing about all this is that it is almost always fruits that are confused for vegetables, but it rarely happens the other way around, as in the case of sweet potato, which due to its sweet taste, is a vegetable that is often mistaken for a fruit.Now you have the tools to differentiate fruits from vegetables, you just have to remember that the former have seeds.