Is lettuce a vegetable or a fruit?
Lettuce is one of the most popular vegetables . Surely you have ever eaten a rich salad of lettuce leaves , tomato , corn , onion … Its nutritional properties are scarce, since it is a low-calorie ingredient , but it does provide some vitamins and minerals . What is certain is that it is a very healthy food, but… is it a fruit or a vegetable ? In this article we will answer this question that, although it seems silly, many people are still not clear about it.
lettuce is a vegetable
From the point of view of horticulture, a vegetable is understood as any green part of vegetables (hence its name). Lettuce, therefore, falls into this category, as they are actually fresh green leaves. However, they can also be red . In addition, in some cases, they are squeezed into more or less compact cabbages.
It is a vegetable that is eaten raw , and is usually used in salads or as an ingredient in a hamburger or sandwich. It can also be eaten cooked or roasted , although this is less common. An example of a hot dish that can be made with lettuce is a vegetable stew. Because it contains hardly any nutrients and hardly any fat content, it is ideal for weight loss diets .
Why is there this doubt?
Many times we doubt whether a fruit is really a fruit or a vegetable and vice versa. Oddly enough, it happens very often, so in this article we want to give you the key so you know how to distinguish them perfectly .
In the first place, neither the word fruit nor the word vegetable are scientific terms, but rather form part of a domestic terminology . This is what basically causes the confusion. To avoid confusion, you should know that the fruit is the edible part of the fruit, which is a kind of fertilized ovary that surrounds the seed (or seeds) to protect it and has a reproductive function. Vegetables, on the other hand, are other elements of plants (root, stems, leaves…).
Applying the latter to examples, we can say that an asparagus is the stem of the plant, while lettuce is leaves and carrots are roots . These vegetables have very varied functions, but the common one is reproductive.
Vegetable is not the same as vegetable
This is a very common mistake: we tend to believe that vegetables and vegetables mean the same thing, and that is not the case at all . The word “vegetable” is a term used in botany , and it includes any plant that grows in an irrigated garden, except fruit trees and cereals. The vegetable is the complete plant , while fruit and vegetables only refer to a part of it.
In the end, these misconceptions stem from the human being’s need to simplify the world around him. However, nature shows us once again that it is more complex than we think.
