What is a Vegetable?

Eating fruits and vegetables is one of the best ways to maintain good health. Fruits and vegetables are an important part of a healthy diet. They contain vitamins, phytochemicals, and minerals that can protect your body from diseases like diabetes, cancers, and heart diseases. Ideally, you should consume five kinds of vegetables and two kinds of fruits each day.

The word vegetable was first recorded in print in English in the 14th century. The word comes from Latin ‘vegetabilis’ and from vegetare, or enliven. This means to the part of a plant that is growing.

However, the meaning of plant grown for food was not established until the 18th century. The scientific and traditional definition of vegetable is more subjective than arbitrary. Normally, the edible part of a plant is called a vegetable. Some people consider a plant part which is normally eaten as unsweetened or with salted food a vegetable.

Customs in various places also define a vegetable in particular ways. Individual food selection and choices also contribute towards a specific plant product being called a vegetable or not.

Mushrooms are categorized as a vegetable, although they are biologically fungi.

Grains, nuts, herbs, seeds, spices, and culinary fruits are not considered vegetables although all of them are edible parts of plants.

In the culinary sense, vegetables are ideally best suited for salted and unsweetened dishes, with a few exceptions like pumpkin pie. Again, definition of vegetable does not imply that the product needs to be cooked.

Carrots, celery, and bell peppers are common examples of vegetables that can be eaten raw. Many people eat raw potato; usually with salt and after washing it. Some people swear by a potato as a quick answer to heartburn.

There are various fruits which are usually used as vegetables. Examples include eggplant, tomato, and bell pepper. These are, botanically, fruits but they are normally consumed as part of a savory or salty dish, not as a dessert or eaten with sugar. Therefore, they called vegetables.

The preparation could cause the change of a fruit into a vegetable.

Vegetables Formed from Parts of a Plant

Buds: Brussels sprouts, cauliflower, broccoli, globe artichokes.

Leaves: kale, collard greens, beet greens, spinach, turnip greens and endive.

Seeds: Corn.

Leaf stems: Celery, rhubarb; sometimes rhubarb is also termed as a fruit as sweet dishes are made from it.

Leaf sheaths: Leeks.

Stem of immature plant: Asparagus.

Whole immature plants: Bean sprouts.

Underground stem of a plant or tuber: Potatoes, sweet potato Jerusalem artichokes, yam.

Bulbs: Onions, garlic, shallots.

Roots: Carrots, parsnips, beets, radishes, turnips.

Botanical Fruits: Tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, pumpkins, capsicums eggplant, tomatillos, christophene, okra.

Whole unripe seedpods (of legumes): Green beans, snap peas.

Legumes: Peas, beans.

The use of the term vegetable is more arbitrary than scientific. You cannot always specify anything as a vegetable only or not a vegetable at all.

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