Rae Rogers, age 13, of San Diego, Calif., for her question:
WHAT IS THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FRUITS AND VEGETABLES?
Both vegetables and fruits are highly important items for the human diet. They offer a wide variety of acids, salts, natural sugars, vitamins and minerals that are helpful in keeping a person feeling well and healthy. They also contain water and roughage which makes them good laxatives. On top of all this, they also taste delicious and are handsome in appearance. Most are easily digested.
A botanist will say that all seed bearing plants, including vegetables, produce fruits, although most people consider fruits to be different from vegetables. From a scientific point of view, however, fruit refers to the seed or seeds of a plant, together with the parts in which it is enclosed.
In common usage, however, the term "fruit" is used to describe fleshy crops that are not usually eaten as part of the main course of a meal. Most foods referred to as fruit, such as apples and plums, grow on plants that live and produce crops for many years.
The word "vegetable" generally refers to the foods we obtain from the leaves, stems, flower clusters, roots, tubers, and even the seeds of certain plants.
Vegetables that are important because of their leaves or stems include cabbage, lettuce, spinach, mustard, cress, parsley, asparagus and rhubarb. Those important for their roots include white potatoes, sweet potatoes, carrots, beets, turnips, parsnips and onions.
The seeds of other vegetables are important, too. Included here are peas, beans, soybeans and sweet corn.
In general, fruits are grouped into three distinct classes: tropical fruits, subtropical fruits and temperate zone fruits.
In the temperate zone area, the two most important fruits in terms of world production are apples and grapes. Also in this classification are peaches, apricots, pears, plums, cherries and berries.
Tropical fruits include pineapples and bananas, while avocados and citrus fruits are put into the subtropical classification.
Leading fruit growing states are California, Florida, Washington, New York, Utah, Wisconsin, New Jersey, Oregon, Michigan, South Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania, Virginia, New Jersey, Arizona and Texas.
The ten leading vegetable growing states, in order, are California, Illinois, Iowa, Idaho, Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio, Louisiana, Missouri and Arkansas.
China is the leading vegetable growing country in the world, followed by Russia, the United States, Poland, Brazil, India, East Germany, Indonesia, Zaire and West Germany.