If only it were as simple as the difference between apples and oranges. But trying to tell the difference between a fruit and a vegetable often leaves people confused—and often makes guesswork out of complying with the admonition to eat 2–4 servings of fruit and 3–5 servings of vegetables a day. This is because fruit has two meanings—one popular and one scientific. In popular usage, a fruit is a plant part that is eaten as a dessert or a snack because it is sweet. This is why we consider apples and peaches fruit, but not peppers or lentils. But botanically speaking, a fruit is the mature ovary of a plant; it is a self-contained vehicle for reproduction of the type of plant from which it developed. A peach, for example, contains a pit that can sprout a new peach tree, while the seeds known as peas hold the potential for another pea vine. To a botanist, apples, peaches, peppers, peas, and cucumbers are all fruits.
A vegetable is a plant that is grown primarily because it produces an edible part, such as the leaf of spinach, the root of a carrot, the flower of broccoli, or the stalk of rhubarb. By this reasoning, all fruits must come from vegetables. Of course any child knows that we usually make the further distinction that vegetables are by definition not very sweet and are not served for dessert.
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