Tomato -- Fruit or Vegetable you weigh in
By zeloguy
@zeloguy (4911)
United States
18 responses
@nancyrowina (3850)
•
1 Feb 08
I've always been told it's actually a fruit, but no one has ever explained exactly why. There must be some criteria that separates fruits from vegetables that I'm not aware of, and to be quite honest it doesn't keep me awake at night, lol.
I do know that tomatoes are one of the only "fruits" that retains most of it's vitamins even after being tinned stored and cooked, and the contain ingredients that help prevent cancer so worth eating whatever species they actually are.
1 person likes this
@nancyrowina (3850)
•
1 Feb 08
Well you learn something new every day, I had wondered for a long time actually it's just not something I ever researched.
@MeghanLynn11 (103)
• United States
8 Jan 08
I always thought of it as a vegetable as well when I was younger, and I found it hard to believe when I was told it was a fruit. But now, I accept it as a fruit. :)
@MeghanLynn11 (103)
• United States
9 Jan 08
Yes, I went through the stages. First, denial. Yada yada yada. But alas, however hard it was, I now accept it. Tomatos, and even tamatahs, are fruits. :D
1 person likes this
@Buchi_bulla (8298)
• India
1 Feb 08
I think tomato is a vegetable. Even in small class text book, it is mentioned as vegetable, like "Name five vegetables?, Tomato, Potato, Peas, Beans and Onion". So this fruit news is new to me.
1 person likes this
@Modestah (11179)
• United States
14 Feb 08
though growing up in school I was taught that a tomato is both a fruit and a veggie - that is untrue.... A tomato is a fruit, through and through. It's seeds tell you that it is a Berry, and Berries are indeed fruits. Cucumbers are also Berries, cool eh?
1 person likes this
@OURDEW (4809)
• United States
1 Feb 08
I had always thought a tomato was a vegetable until one day many years ago, I was told by my son's kindergarten teacher that it was actually a fruit because it has seeds. I guess I had it wrong all those years, I know in school we were taught it was a veggie.lol
1 person likes this
@polachicago (18716)
• United States
24 Jan 08
It is fruit for sure. We mix it with salads, but it belongs to fruit family.
I get similar discussion with few people who tried to tell me that I am wrong....but I am sure it is great fruit...
@ElicBxn (63235)
• United States
8 Jan 08
I think, actually its a kind of berry. A fruit or berry is part of the flower/fuit stage where as a veggie is part of the nature of the plant. So, yes, its a fruit. Celery is the stalk; lettace, spinich are leaves; potatoes, turnips, radishs are roots, they are veggies.
1 person likes this
@coolimrose (539)
• New Zealand
9 Jan 08
yes i too heard long time back that it is a fruit and i think it may be if people say.But it dosent matter fruit or vege i love to have it cooked and raw.
1 person likes this
@RowenaTheWitch (947)
• Italy
8 Jan 08
Hi zeloguy!
Well tecnically if you eat the plant itself then you are eating a vegetable. For example the salad you eat is made of leafs of the plant. Instead if you eat something which contains seeds than it's a fruit. You don't eat the tomato plant but only the tomato
1 person likes this
@The_Col_G (55)
• Australia
14 Jan 08
Yep, the tomato is definitely a fruit which is treated as a vegetable, just like avocado is. Also cucumber, choko (chayote), eggplant (aubergine), capsicum (bell pepper), pumpkin (squash, marrow) and probably a few others I'll think of after I've hit "post response" (always the way!)
What do you think about rhubarb then? That is a stalk which is actually treated as a fruit!
@edgedbgold (48)
• United States
10 Jan 08
Boy you been in the dark for a long time aint ya. It's a no brainer the tomato is a fruit and a cousin to the orange and lemon etc. as it is a citrus fruit.
@zeloguy (4911)
• United States
10 Jan 08
For all you that live in the United States:
"The U.S. Supreme Court settled the controversy in 1893 by declaring that the tomato is a vegetable, based on the popular definition that classifies vegetables by use, that they are generally served with dinner and not dessert (Nix v. Hedden (149 U.S. 304)). The holding of the case applies only to the interpretation of the Tariff Act of March 3, 1883, and the court did not purport to reclassify the tomato for botanical or other purposes other than paying a tax under a tariff act."
So it may just be a fruit TECHNICALLY, but the US Government see it as otherwise. So all of you out there fretting over the fact your tomato is a fruit, fret no more.
@edgedbgold (48)
• United States
10 Jan 08
Just like our govern ment to reclassify reality. Reminds me kinda of the cashew we call it a nut but technically it is a seed.
@YamiKiba (937)
• United States
31 Jan 08
It is both. It is technically a fruit. .but is often seen/eaten as a vegetable. Those are one of the fun facts I learned while watching Saturday morning cartoons on Fox a couple of years back lol. It doesn't matter either way though. :) I love tomatoes, especially those little ones markets price really expensive sometimes. .
@zeloguy (4911)
• United States
31 Jan 08
I assume you are speaking of cherry tomatoes. When I was a kid I was over a friends house and it was the first time I had ever seen a cherry tomato so I bit into it just as I would a regular tomato and juice went flying across the table right into my friends eyes.
He's screaming, I'm laughing (I couldn't help myself it was FUNNY) and his mother was none to happy with me. I think that is the last time I was invited to dinner there come to think of it.
