Tomatoes are fruits

Tomatoes are fruits – Is the tomato a fruit or a vegetable?

By primeweb Published March 25, 2024

Tomatoes are fruits that nutritionists consider vegetables. From a botanical point of view, a fruit is a ripe flower stick that contains seeds.

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Tomatoes, plums, zucchini, and melons are edible fruits, but things like maple choppers and floating dandelion puffs are also fruits.

Is the tomato a fruit or a vegetable?

There is a fair amount of confusion as to the assignment of Solanum lycopersicum.
Anyone who grows the heat-loving plants from the nightshade family (Solanaceae) in the greenhouse, outdoors, or in pots on the balcony or terrace commonly speaks of tomatoes as a vegetable.
The tomato was even considered an ornamental plant until the 18th century.
In 1778 it appeared under the heading vegetables in the seed catalog of a French company.
But is this classification correct, or isn’t the tomato more of a fruit?

When distinguishing between fruits and vegetables, there are different definitions.
From the botanists’ point of view, the tomato is a fruit because it emerges from a pollinated flower.
Conversely, one could conclude that tomatoes are not a vegetable because all other edible parts of the plant belong to it.
It can be, for example, flowers (artichokes), leaves (spinach), or tubers (potatoes).
Besides, from a botanical point of view, the tomato fruits are berries.
According to this view, one could assume that tomatoes are fruit.
On the other hand, however, some definitions apply to tomatoes as a vegetable speak.
In horticulture, one speaks of fruit when the fruit comes from woody plants such as trees or bushes.
On the other hand, Tomatoes are the fruits of herbaceous plants – they are therefore part of the vegetable.
In the context of the definition of food, the vegetation cycle of the plants is essential. We only speak of fruit when the plants bear fruit for many years in a row.
It is only the case with tomatoes in their warm homeland – we usually cultivate them as an annual and sow them anew every year.
According to this definition, tomatoes are also considered vegetables.

Since fruit is a perennial plants’ fruit, tomatoes are herbaceous, annual plants; they belong to the vegetable.
They are also known as fruit vegetables because they consume their fruits.
In addition to tomatoes, fruit vegetables also include cucumbers, eggplants, pumpkins, melons, zucchini, and peppers.
These are the cheapest vegetables and easily available for everyone.

Another point that speaks for tomatoes as a vegetable is the low sugar content of the fruit.
100 grams of tomatoes only contain around 2.5 grams of sugar. In the case of fruit, the sugar content is usually higher so that it tastes sweet.
In terms of our eating habits, too, we use tomatoes more like vegetables. The fruits can prepare numerous hearty dishes such as soups, casseroles, or sauces with spices.
However, we do not cook the fruits. Tomatoes also taste good raw in salads. Yet, this aspect would, in turn, speak more in favor of tomatoes as a vegetable than fruit.

The edible fruits of perennial plants are called fruit. These include apples, pears, plums, cherries, blackberries, strawberries, bananas, and kiwis.
Fruit can be eaten raw or cooked and is usually sweet to tart.

Vegetables are annual and biennial plants whose leaves, fruits, tubers, stems, or roots are eaten raw, cooked, or pickled.
The dry seeds of peas and beans (legumes) or wheat and oats (cereals) do not belong to vegetables.
In the case of vegetables, several groups are differentiated depending on which parts of the plant are consumed.
Salads, for example, belong to the leafy vegetables and beetroot to the root and tuber vegetables. Vegetables that we eat as a fruit are fruit vegetables.

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