Is a Strawberry a Fruit or a Vegetable? | The Complete Explanation
A lot of people get mixed up about strawberries and can’t decide if they’re a type of fruit or a vegetable. This might be because strawberries have seeds on the outside which is not common for most fruits, and they can be found in foods like salads that usually have vegetables. So, are strawberries fruits or vegetables?
To get to the bottom of this, we need to look at the official definitions of fruits and vegetables.
A fruit is what grows from a flower and holds seeds. It’s the way that plants spread those seeds so they can make new plants.
Vegetables, on the other hand, are other parts of plants we can eat, like the leafy greens, stalks, roots, and bulbs. When you look at it this way, it’s clear that strawberries belong to the fruit family because they come from flowers and carry seeds.
The thing that makes some people scratch their heads is that strawberries have their seeds on the outside.
While it’s more normal for fruits like apples and oranges to have seeds tucked away inside, the fact that strawberry seeds are on the outside doesn’t stop them from being a true fruit.
Nutrition-wise, strawberries act a lot like other fruits because they’re packed with vitamins, minerals, and things called antioxidants. Vegetables generally don’t have as much of these good nutrients.
Strawberries are especially rich in Vitamin C and come with lots of other health-boosting stuff that helps protect our bodies from harmful particles called free radicals.
Some of the confusion might also come from the fact that strawberries can be used in savory food. Salads are often full of vegetables, but putting strawberries in there doesn’t suddenly make them vegetables.
In fact, there are many fruits that taste great in savory dishes, just like tomatoes and avocados, and that doesn’t change their fruity nature.
Strawberries have an interesting structure. Unlike most fruits with only one ovary, strawberries grow from many ovaries of one flower, making them “aggregate fruits” or fruits that are made up of many smaller ones.
Technically speaking, strawberries are “aggregate fruits“, and those little sections we see with seeds are called drupelets. Each one is a tiny fruit on its own.
All these drupelets clump together to give strawberries their unique look. When all is said and done, strawberries are without a doubt classified as fruits, no matter the confusion or how we choose to eat them.
Wrapping Up
In the end, strawberries are certainly considered fruits when we go by the scientific description of what a fruit is. They’re the parts of plants that come after the flowers and carry seeds for making more plants. Even if we sometimes put strawberries in recipes that usually have vegetables, this doesn’t turn them into vegetables.
Strawberries are clearly fruits. They might look and taste a bit like vegetables, but they’re different because they come from the flower, have seeds for plant babies, and are also really nutritious like other fruits are known to be. Remember, when you’re enjoying strawberries, you’re enjoying a sweet, nutritious fruit.
