What is the deciding factor in determining the difference between a fruit and a vegetable?

Answer 1

The answer depends on what you mean. There are two different way to define a fruit: botanically and culinarily.

In botany, a fruit is the ripened ovary—together with seeds—of a flowering plant. What that means in essence is that if a part of a plant develops from a flower then it is a fruit. So botanically a pumpkin is a fruit, as is a bean or a tomatoe or a kernel of corn.

Of course in the real world nobody would consider a grain of corn or a peanut to be a fruit. In the real world we mostly apply the CULINARY defintion of a fruit. In cuisine, when discussing fruit as food, the term usually refers to just those plant fruits that are sweet and fleshy, examples of which include plum, apple and orange. Since wheat, peanuts and so forth are neithe rfleshy nor sweet they are not fruit uder the culinary definition used by most people.

Answer 2

Many people who don't like vegetables love fruits. Specially children!

Answer 3

A fruit contains seeds and is part of the reproductive strategy of the plant. So a tomato and a cucumber are both 'fruit'.

Answer 4

A plant is a plant or part of a herb used as food

Answer 5

Both are good for you, each fruit/vegetable has different vitamins. Therefore as more variety, as better. Vegetables have generally less sugar than fruits.

Answer 6

Fruit is the one that has seeds in side, how you consume it is immaterial.

Every thing else from that plant is vegetable .

Answer 7

a fruit falls out a tree. even a tomato is a fruit. and a vegetable grown its own tree. looks like a fruit is a residual of a vegetable which had grown up a tree and was overstocked with fruits. there seemed to be a lot of fruits these days. it's all because of the sun. they tried to blind him with all kinds of stuffs. mostly dirty stuffs by some arabic countries who are all smoking cigars. everybody knows about the cigars of the pharaohs. they are from egypt and guatemala and the presidente signor ortega has assumed they were all coming from quebec region. he was assuming right. that is why is presidente of guatamala, guatemala city and all the guatemalteques. he had hired ginsho alonzo, the weel-known desperados of mexico as a hired killer of the gunsho mafiosos which are born in japan with success to the dismay of the rest of the broads on and in earth. he was killed (gunsho alonzo)by Ben Laden himself the celeber chinaman from modagiscio when he is sick to the belly for overeating, not the desert ones, missing the H, had to remind you. of course, you are no CIA, of the american republics.

Answer 8

with a fruit the seeds on are on the inside

Answer 9

So squash and zuchini are fruit too?

Peppers?

Answer 10

isn't there something about "it's a fruit if it comes from a flowering plant" and vegetables dont come from flowering plants. right? dunno.