if you are the sort of person who argues a tomato is a fruit not a vegetable

[ethelb]

What you think a vegetable is?

But a tomato is a fruit.

A carrot, of course.

So are most vegetables. Why do people argue that a tomato is a fruit, but rarely say an aubergine?

a vegetable does not have seeds INSIDE it

so technically things like courgettes and cucumbers etc are also fruits not vegetables.

You can vegetablise it all you like, won't stop it being a fruit.

Well technically an aubergine is a fruit too. As are bell peppers.

Or a pumpkin?

Because no-one in their right minds would eat an aubergine so who cares what it's technically classified as?

Why do people not get snarky about chillies being fruits, not vegetables?

Stuart: Ooh, Sheldon, I’m afraid you couldn’t be more wrong.

Sheldon: More wrong? Wrong is an absolute state and not subject to gradation.

Stuart: Of course it is. It’s a little wrong to say a tomato is a vegetable, it’s very wrong to say it’s a suspension bridge.

I know it's a fruit really, but c'mon you wouldn't put it in a fruit salad.

Non technical classification of fruit and veg - fruit is pudding stuff, vegetables are savoury. Pfft to the pips.

Even though I know tomatoes, aubergines and peppers are fruits I still refer to them as vegetables when cooking with them.

So maybe I'm not one if those people you're thinking of after all, OP.

I will get to the point. On my botany/plant science degree, it was never ever suggested that something being considered a vegetable was mutually exclusive with being a fruit.

A vegetable is a cultural defination, not a scientific one.

Why do people think it is a point of argument at all?

Why do people argue that a tomato is a fruit, but rarely say an aubergine?

Ah, I see, you are talking about the people who make a big deal of telling you "a tomato is a fruit dontcha know", thinking they are clever, because they are repeatig it parrot fashion having heard it on a pub quiz or kids facts programmes - but they do not know the reason, so never realise other common so-called "veg" are actually technically fruits too. Either that or they have no idea as they don't eat many varieties of fresh F&V and/or have no idea how things grow (ie what PART of the plant - ie leaf stalk root flower or fruit - they are eating)

My 7 year old daughter always has cherry tomatoes in her fruit salad as she argues that because it's a fruit it should be included.

I'd not thought about courgettes etc. I'll see if she wants some of those in too!

A tomato is a fruit. It has seeds inside it. That makes it a fruit.

To quote Miles Kington:

Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not putting it in a fruit salad.

So if fruit is anything with seeds inside, strawberries are vegetables, and more vegetables are actually fruit than vegetables?

Needs a new method of differentiating imo.

There are salad vegetables, which are fruits, and there are root vegetables, which are vegetables.

My invoice will be in the post.

Although potato salad fucks that theory.

Phanto exactly. Don't they realise it makes them sound a bit thick and like someone with no scientific understanding whatsoever?

A bit like the arts grad writers who write Big Bang Theory Glacindathetroll

Knowledge is knowing a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not adding it to your fruit salad.

I've been moved to look up a definition of vegetable. It is:
"a plant or part of a plant used as food, such as a cabbage, potato, turnip, or bean."
That implies you could include wheat, barley, maize etc?

I thought vegetables were all edible plant (and fungus) parts (leaf/stem/root/bulb) that were not otherwise defined as fruits, nuts or grains.

it makes them sound a bit thick

I deliberately avoided using that word for fear of the backlash!!

Stratter the point is there is no point of differentiation.

Also: "any plant whose fruit, seeds, roots, tubers, bulbs, stems, leaves, or flower parts are used as food"