Per Wikipedia: "Vegetables are edible parts of plants that are consumed by humans or other animals as food. This original meaning is still commonly used, and is applied to plants collectively to refer to all edible plant matter, including flowers, fruits, stems, leaves, roots, and seeds."

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[–] 22 points 1 month ago (6 children)

They're both.
Vegetable is a food category, fruit is a biological category (part of the plant).

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  • [–] 20 points 1 month ago (4 children)

    Here's the thing. You said a "fruits are vegetables."

    Are they edible parts of plants? Yes. No one's arguing that.

    As someone who is a scientist who studies food, I am telling you, specifically, in science, no one calls fruits vegetables. If you want to be "specific" like you said, then you shouldn't either. They're not the same thing.

    If you're saying "fruits" you're referring to the botanical grouping of fructus, which includes things from nuts to tomatoes to pumpkins.

    So your reasoning for calling fruits a vegetable is because random people "call the edible parts vegetables?" Let's get roots and leaves in there, then, too.

    Also, calling someone a human or an ape? It's not one or the other, that's not how taxonomy works. They're both. A vegetable is a vegetable and a member of the frouit grouping. But that's not what you said. You said a fruits are vegetables, which is not true unless you're okay with calling all edible plant parts vegetables, which means you'd call seeds, bark, and parts vegetables, too. Which you said you don't.

    It's okay to just admit you're wrong, you know?

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