Fruit is the product of a plant or tree that contains a seed. This includes apples, pears, strawberries, cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, and pumpkins. A vegetable is any edible part of a plant that isn’t a fruit. This includes leaves like spinach and lettuce, roots like carrots and turnips, and bulbs like onions. Legumes—like beans, lentils, and peas—are also vegetables. Mushrooms, meanwhile, are neither a fruit nor a vegetable. They’re a fungus.
Despite these definitions, food experts say that people often define a fruit or vegetable by taste. For example, most people think of fruits as sweet and vegetables as savory (salty or spicy). That’s why they often treat tomatoes and avocados like vegetables, even though they are technically considered fruit.…
