Difference Between Fruits and Vegetables
The boundary between the fruit and vegetables is floating. As a rule, the plant’s use in the food that determines whether we regard it as a fruit or vegetable. For example, there are a wide range of banana varieties. Some of them are sweet and eaten raw, and therefore regarded as fruit. Other varieties are inedible in the raw state. They must be boiled and used as the base food, like potatoes and rice – and therefore also considered cooking bananas as vegetables.
The terms are somewhat fluid, because it does not mention that there is no scientific definition of vegetables. What we describe as vegetables, is solely determined by feeding habits. Fruit, however, has a unique botanical definition: The fruit is a part of plant, with a fruit wall that contains seeds. While vegetables are botanical sets which can be roots, stems, leaves, flowers and in some cases fruit, a fruit is always a fruit, according to the botanical definition. The fruits, however, is mutually very different. They range from dry hazel nuts that are hidden in a hard shell of juicy strawberry and black currant to 40 kg heavy bread fruit.
There are numerous examples of botanical fruits that are called vegetables. These include peppers, where the name reveals the botanical sense of belonging, but also beans, cucumbers, tomatoes, zucchini and eggplants.