eli5 why the tomato is not a vegetable
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There are multiple definitions of “vegetable”. One of them is “Non-fruit plant based food”. A different one is “plant based food”. A different one is “things the government is allowed to tax as a vegetable”.
Tomatoes fail the first definition, but pass the second and third definition. So the tomato is both a vegetable and a fruit, depending on who is being asked and why the question is asked.
A fruit (in biological terms) is the enlarged ovary of a flowering plant. Because the tomato is the enlarged ovary of the tomato plant, it is by definition a fruit.
The way I learned it in an ecology class is that fruits are part of a plant’s reproductive system, while vegetables are part of their “vegetation.” If the part you’re eating has seeds (peppers, tomatoes, strawberries etc) then it’s a fruit, vs eating the leaves, stalk, roots etc. Sometimes we aren’t as aware of the seeds, like a banana for example.
Different groups of people have different definitions for the terms “vegetable” and “fruit”.
The botanical (biologist) definition of fruit is the ripened ovary of a plant (i.e. the part with seeds). The botanical definition of vegetable is any other part of the plant.
The culinary (cook) definition of fruit is a subset of the botanical fruits that includes mostly those fruits that are sweet (in other words, those fruits that we incorporate into dishes like desserts). The culinary definition of vegetable is a plant part that we use in food that isn’t a fruit, spice, or herb.
In other words, if you ask a biologist if a tomato is a fruit or vegetable, they’ll say it’s a fruit. If you ask a cook, they’ll say vegetable because nobody bakes a tomato pie (I mean, we do, but we call them “pizza” rather than “pie” and it’s a savory dish, not a dessert).
Don’t give a sheet how someone classifies it. It’s a vegetable to me. I eat tomatos with vegetables. Not with fruit.
Fruits and vegetables are not mutually exclusive categories, so a tomato is both a fruit and a vegetable.
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