this post was submitted on 19 Oct 2025
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Science Memes

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[–] danc4498@lemmy.world 160 points 2 months ago (5 children)

Vegetables aren’t real. They made up the classification just to sell things that aren’t fruits.

[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.ca 111 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Big Celery just trying to legitimize crunchy water

[–] NoForwadSlashS@piefed.social 12 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I could go for some refreshingly crunchy big celery right now

[–] whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 2 months ago

Maybe dipped in some oily legume seed paste that has a name including -nut but isn't one

[–] I_Fart_Glitter@lemmy.world 20 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Same with nuts. Botanically, not a thing.

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[–] HowAbt2day@futurology.today 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Now this a QAnon theory I can align with. #finally

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[–] Klear@quokk.au 147 points 2 months ago (1 children)
[–] TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works 44 points 2 months ago (4 children)

Not fixed as 'content not viewable in your region'

[–] Klear@quokk.au 55 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You need to be in a better region.

[–] faythofdragons@slrpnk.net 73 points 2 months ago

Don't we all

[–] Dave@lemmy.nz 32 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)
[–] Texas_Hangover@lemmy.radio 15 points 2 months ago (2 children)

The fuck region are you in?

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[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 97 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Yeah I knew mushrooms were shady shit since when they snuck in with the badgers. Nobody batted an eye back then and look at where we are now.

[–] SkaveRat@discuss.tchncs.de 20 points 2 months ago

I always categorized them as a snake

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[–] Tudsamfa@lemmy.world 55 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (9 children)

Fruit has a botanical and a culinary definition.

Vegetable only has a culinary definition.

Trying to decide on what food fits which category purely on the botanical definition of fruit is silly. In many other languages, the botanical and culinary definition even use completely different words. It's like saying lobster is red meat using a scientific definition of red.

But if we are having fun with this, rhubarb: definitely no fruit, but far too sweet, too often consumed raw or minimally processed, and far too at home in a yoghurt to fit nicely into the group vegetable.

[–] idiomaddict@lemmy.world 16 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (1 children)

Rhubarb’s just sour celery

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[–] TheBat@lemmy.world 45 points 2 months ago

Fucking

Fucking

[–] Vespair@lemmy.zip 31 points 2 months ago (13 children)

I'm sorry, who exactly is out here calling mushrooms vegetables??

[–] azertyfun@sh.itjust.works 32 points 2 months ago (11 children)

If it goes in soup, it's a vegetable. If it goes in Sangria, it's a fruit.

Next question please.

[–] Typhoon@lemmy.ca 11 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Chicken and beef go in soup.

[–] thatKamGuy@sh.itjust.works 20 points 2 months ago

Therefore, chicken and beef is vegetables.

Checkmate, vegans!

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[–] meadsteve@reddthat.com 26 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I absolutely call them vegetables. It's a kitchen term and it absolutely makes sense to categorise them alongside tomatoes, beans, carrots, squash and cabbage. People get too hung up on things only belonging to exactly one category.

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[–] Ephera@lemmy.ml 8 points 2 months ago (1 children)

I believe, it's a US thing. This is a quote from the official Dietary Guidelines for Americans (DGA):

Other Vegetables: All other fresh, frozen, and canned vegetables, cooked or raw: for example, asparagus, avocado, bamboo shoots, beets, bitter melon, Brussels sprouts, cabbage (green, red, napa, savoy), cactus pads (nopales), cauliflower, celery, chayote (mirliton), cucumber, eggplant, green beans, kohlrabi, luffa, mushrooms, okra, onions, radish, rutabaga, seaweed, snow peas, summer squash, tomatillos, and turnips.

Source: https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/sites/default/files/2021-03/Dietary_Guidelines_for_Americans-2020-2025.pdf (page 28)

I've read elsewhere that the reason for the DGA to conflate them, is because mushrooms have comparable nutrients to vegetables. So, from a dietary and regulatory viewpoint, it makes some amount of sense. But yeah, I feel like you could have just had a category "vegetables & mushrooms".

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[–] Amputret@lemmy.dbzer0.com 31 points 2 months ago (2 children)

We just ignoring the mushrooms are also fruit(ing bodie)s?

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[–] devedeset@lemmy.zip 29 points 2 months ago (4 children)

I know this is probably a repost but the self-censorship is super annoying and has entered the lexicon in ways that can permanently damage human communication as a whole.

Yeah sure censor stuff from kid shows but we're at the point where "unalive" and "pdf file" are being used as code words. Everyone knows what they mean, even the censors.

[–] Scrollone@feddit.it 12 points 2 months ago (2 children)

100% agree, we live in a 1984 age.

Also, using stupid words such as unalive doesn't make any sense because the algorithm of social media companies knows exactly what it means.

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[–] Paradachshund@lemmy.today 26 points 2 months ago (2 children)

My wife and I like to joke that vegetables aren't real and all of them are just something else in reality.

[–] ilinamorato@lemmy.world 39 points 2 months ago (1 children)

You're correct! "Vegetable" is a culinary term. "Fruit" is both botanical and culinary. The "tomato isn't a fruit" nonsense comes from people trying to conflate the two; if we called botanical fruits "grunkles" we wouldn't have this problem.

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[–] HeyThisIsntTheYMCA@lemmy.world 25 points 2 months ago

VEGETABLES DO NOT EXIST

[–] EldritchFeminity@lemmy.blahaj.zone 25 points 2 months ago (1 children)
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[–] ICastFist@programming.dev 24 points 2 months ago (9 children)

I have a simple flowchart to determine what is or isn't a veggie:

> Can I eat it? -> Yes -> Does it come from an animal? -> No = Vegetable

[–] RichardDegenne@lemmy.zip 13 points 2 months ago (1 children)

Rice, my favorite vegetable.

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[–] ILikeBoobies@lemmy.ca 9 points 2 months ago

That’s why they call you the bread man.

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[–] Hasherm0n@lemmy.world 19 points 2 months ago
[–] UrPartnerInCrime@sh.itjust.works 15 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (11 children)

Intelligence is knowing tomatoes are a fruit

Wisdom is knowing to never add it to a fruit salad

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[–] gwl@lemmy.blahaj.zone 13 points 2 months ago

fucking fucking

[–] Zozano@aussie.zone 12 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago) (2 children)

In terms of botany, a vegetable isn't a thing (it's a culinary term).

Whereas a fruit has a specific botanical term (and a culinary term).

Not everything is "one or the other", some things are neither (Rhubarb), and some are both (tomato).

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[–] ZombieMantis@lemmy.world 10 points 2 months ago (1 children)

It's the difference between the culinary use of the word and the biological use of the word. I thought we already figured that out?

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[–] Beacon@fedia.io 9 points 2 months ago (1 children)

When people say that they are wrong. There are two different definitions for the word "fruit". They're homonyms for completely different words. It's like if i ask you: Which is lighter, a black Mini Cooper, or a white Hummer? Depends on which definition of "lighter" you're asking about

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[–] PerogiBoi@lemmy.ca 9 points 2 months ago (3 children)

Mushrooms are detachable fungal penises that jizz into the wind.

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[–] tresspass@lemmy.world 9 points 2 months ago (6 children)

The thing is too that mushrooms don't even cook like vegetables or even like a protein or anything. So not only are they not botanically vegetables, they aren't even culinarily vegetables either.

Also if you don't like mushrooms because of the texture, you're probably cooking your mushrooms wrong.

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[–] RoabeArt@hexbear.net 8 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

A "vegetable" is simply any edible part of a plant. Fruits can therefore be considered a subcategory of vegetables.

If you really want to get into the nitty gritty, an ear of corn is botanically a fruit, since it's the seed-bearing body of a plant. But nobody in their right mind would consider corn a fruit.

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