Distinguishing Fruits & Vegetables: Key Differences

Fruit and vegetables are both essential parts of our daily diets, providing necessary vitamins and minerals to keep us healthy and fit. However, many people may not know the difference between the two. This article will explore the classification and nutritional differences between fruits and vegetables.

Fruits are the sweet, fleshy parts of plants, such as oranges, apples, plums, guavas, and grapes. Scientifically speaking, a fruit is a mature ovary of a flower that contains seeds. We eat the fleshy part of the ovary and leave the seeds. Nature intends for fruits to be used for the dissemination of seeds through animals and birds that eat a little fruit and carry seeds to far places where they grow into another plant.

On the other hand, vegetables are edible parts of a plant. Since there is no botanical definition for a vegetable, all parts of plants that are eaten by humans are classified as vegetables, such as stems, leaves (cabbage), tubers (potatoes), roots (carrots and beets), bulbs (garlic), or even seeds (peas). Some flowers of a plant are also considered vegetables, such as broccoli.

Key Takeaways

• Fruit is an ovary of a plant, while all edible parts of a plant are vegetables.
• Fruits contain large amounts of fructose, making them sweet, while vegetables contain fructose in trace amounts.
• Both fruits and vegetables are essential sources of vitamins and minerals, which should be included in our daily diets.