We explain what vegetables are and their properties. We also tell you how they differ from vegetables and legumes. Please read other MTV articles for more information. If you share it, it will be of little help to us.
What are vegetables?
Vegetables are a type of food of plant origin, that is, a type of edible plant whose characteristic feature tends to be the presence of a green color in their stems, leaves, or inflorescences. They are more or less equivalent to vegetables and greens, but not to fruits, as the latter have a characteristic sweet or sour flavor, which vegetables lack. That’s why we often talk about “fruits and vegetables.”
It’s important to understand that “vegetable” is a term of popular origin, with no real scientific basis. It comes from the Latin word “viridis,” which also gives rise to the name of the color green, which is predominant (but not exclusive) in this food group.
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Vegetables play an important role in life and culture: the Mediterranean diet includes a wide selection of vegetables, and most recommended diets include vegetables as a source of fiber, vitamins, and antioxidants.
There are various types of vegetables, depending on their edible part:
- Leafy vegetables, such as cabbage, chard, or spinach.
- Stem vegetables, such as leeks, celery, or asparagus.
- Flowering or inflorescence vegetables, such as artichokes, broccoli, or cauliflower.
- Fruiting vegetables, such as eggplant, zucchini, cucumber, or pepper.
- Bulb vegetables, such as garlic, onion, or beets.
- Seed vegetables, such as peas, broad beans, or soybeans.
- Root vegetables, such as turnips, radishes, carrots, or cassava (manioc).
- Tuber vegetables, such as potatoes, sweet potatoes, or yams.
- Rhizome vegetables, such as ginger.
Differences between vegetables, greens, and legumes
The terms “vegetable,” “greens,” and “legumes” are often used interchangeably because they are all edible plants. However, there are certain key features that differentiate these three terms.
First, vegetables are those foods of plant origin grown in gardens or irrigated land. In fact, the origin of the word dates back to the Latin hortus (“garden”). So, when we talk about vegetables, we are referring to a category of plants that includes both greens and legumes. In other words, vegetables are classified as greens and pulses.
Therefore, greens are those vegetables in which the green color predominates, whether in the leaves, stems, or other parts of the plant. This does not mean that the portion we consume must necessarily be green: with garlic, for example, we consume the final bulb, but the plant has long green leaves.
Legumes, on the other hand, are vegetables and are the fruit or seeds of leguminous plants, whose characteristic feature is that they are produced within a tender, elongated covering called a pod. This is the case with beans and peas.
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Properties of Vegetables
Despite their great diversity, vegetables have a number of important common traits, such as:
- They are predominantly green, due to the chlorophyll in their plants, but at the same time, their edible portions can have very different pigmentations, reflecting their organic substance content. For example, the orange or yellow color of some vegetables indicates the presence of beta-carotene, while red and blue reflect the presence of anthocyanin.
- They provide a significant amount of fiber, minerals, and vitamins, with a very low protein and lipid content, and a variable amount of carbohydrates. Their main vitamins are A (in yellow or red vegetables) and C (in mostly green vegetables).
- There are more than 20,000 species, originating from all continents on the planet (except Antarctica). 20% of these species represent 90% of the food consumed by humanity. Their high vitamin and mineral content (such as potassium, iron, magnesium, and fluoride) makes them important allies for disease prevention and for weight-loss or heart-protection diets.
Importance of Vegetables
Vegetables are a fundamental food in the human diet. Their inclusion in the regular diet provides large amounts of nutrients and natural fiber, which improves digestive processes and guarantees the body the nutritional diversity necessary for a healthy diet.
Vegetables have accompanied humanity since the beginning of civilization and were the first foods to be consumed. For example, olives and figs in the Mediterranean, or tomatoes and cassava in most pre-Columbian American cultures.
Growing and Harvesting Vegetables
Vegetables, as vegetables, are plant foods grown in orchards, irrigated land, and other forms of farming, either through massive agro-industrial methods or in small-scale gardens intended for family subsistence. Their diversity of crops is due to the fact that they not only constitute staple foods in most human diets but can also be incorporated into the preparation of other dishes, such as meats, fish, and soups, among many others.
Most vegetables are annuals and biennials, meaning they are harvested within a year or two of planting, but a few species are perennials. In warm intertropical zones, their cultivation is determined by rainfall patterns, while in temperate zones it is determined by heat and daylight duration.
On the other hand, vegetable harvesting follows specific time patterns, since when they are separated from the rest of the plant (or the plant is separated from the soil), the vegetables continue to lose water through natural transpiration, so they usually dry out and ripen. Potatoes, for example, benefit from a short ripening period in a warm, humid environment, while other types of vegetables require more immediate transport to the consumer.
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Main Vegetable Producing Countries
| Country | Volume of vegetables produced (in thousands of tons) |
|---|---|
| China | 539,993 |
| India | 100,045 |
| United States | 35,609 |
| Turkey | 25,901 |
| Iran | 19,995 |
| Egypt | 19,487 |
| Italy | 14,201 |
| Russia | 13,283 |
| Spain | 12,679 |
| Mexico | 12,515 |
References
All the information we offer is supported by authoritative and up-to-date bibliographic sources, ensuring reliable content in line with our editorial principles.
- Vegetable on Wikipedia.
- Information about the word Vegetable in the Online Spanish Etymological Dictionary.
- What are vegetables and why should you eat them? in Quaker Mexico.
- Fruits and vegetables in the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO).
- What they are Vegetables, their properties, and their differences with vegetables – concepto.de
