Produce is a tricky thing. It is probably the singular part of the grocery store that nearly everyone agrees is full of healthy options (excepting carnivores). Whether you’re following vegan, paleo, or weight watchers, you can find the bulk of your dinner plate in the produce section. Let’s start with a primer on fruit vs. vegetables.
Fruit, like flowers, are part of the plant’s reproductive system. Vegetables, on the other hand, are the plant itself. It’s that simple.
As a result, one easy way to discern between these to categories is whether the subject has seeds: Fruits do, vegetables do not.
There’s a lot more in the produce section, including grains (think corn) and legumes (think green beans). For the purposes of this post, let’s focus on fruit.
Why is Fruit a generally healthful food?
Generally speaking, the plant wants fruit to be eaten. This is not always true, since some seeds might be broken down in the digestive tract of animals, but it’s a great way to spread the seed to distant places when your roots are stuck in the ground. Animals that eat the seed of plants and then package the seed with manure help that plant species proliferate. This means that, as a general rule, there are fewer plant defense mechanisms within fruit than within other produce categories.
A caution on Fruit
Fruit, like most food in the modern era, often does not resemble it’s early ancestors. They have been bred to be bigger and sweeter than previous iterations of the food. This probably means that we should enjoy fruit in moderation, and with other foods, to avoid the potential blood sugar spike associated with these foods.
Generally speaking, fruit is a great, healthful food. If you are going to buy conventional, make sure you avoid the Dirty Dozen – link here: https://www.ewg.org/foodnews/dirty-dozen.php