I was trying to get my kids to eat some salad for dinner when my 6-year-old informs me that she doesn’t really care for vegetables. Instead, she prefers fruit. That’s when I smiled and told her “good because half of the things in that salad are fruits”. She looked down at her salad with cucumbers, carrots, tomatoes, and croutons and said “no they’re not.” that’s when I took out the science book and had a teaching moment. Is a cucumber a fruit? The simple answer is…
Yes, cucumbers are in fact a fruit. You see, the scientific (more accurately the field of Botany) definition of a fruit is pretty straight forward. A fruit is the part of the plant that grows from the flowering ovaries and contains the seeds.
So in order to vet out fruits and vegetables, you just have to ask yourself a few questions.
1. Does this item contain seeds?
2. Did this item grow from the flower of a plant?
Great, now that we know how to identify fruits let’s clear up a little more of the confusion. So if the part of the plant that contains the seeds is the fruit of the plant then what are vegetables? Well, pretty much everything else. The roots, stalks, and leaves are all considered vegetables. With this type of classification that means that things like Green beans, squash, tomatoes and peppers would all be fruits. Whereas cabbage, onions, potatoes, carrots, beets, celery and asparagus would all be a vegetable.
What type of fruit is a cucumber?
Cucumbers are actually a type of berry. Ya I know that sounds crazy but it’s true. They are known as a “Pepo”. This is a type of berry with no internal divisions and a hard outer skin or rind. Some other common examples of the “Pepo” berry would be Squash, zucchini, Pumpkins, and Watermelon.
How many types of cucumbers are there?
There are generally considered 2 major types of cucumbers. The first type would be the “Slicing” cucumbers. These are the cucumbers that you would see in the market and what we generally think of when we think of this fruit. They are large, smooth and light to medium green. These are used in salads and other dishes and have a nice light fresh crisp taste.
The second type of cucumbers is “pickling” cucumbers. These, as their name implies are used for picking purposes. We grow these in our garden and are amazed by how many pickling cucumbers you will get for a single plant. Last year we were able to put up about 40 jars of pickles from a single plant.
How nutritious are cucumbers?
Cucumbers contain many valuable vitamins and minerals such as Vitamin C, Vitamin K, Vitamin A, potassium, manganese, magnesium and fiber. Though cucumbers do have a wide variety of helpful vitamins and minerals it is important to remember that overall cucumbers are about 95% water. This means that they are extremely low in calories and carbohydrates. There are only about 15-16 calories in one cup of cucumbers. That’s amazing! It also means that there is really not that much to them and if you wanted to get your daily intake of the vitamins that cucumbers provide you would have to eat almost 25 cucumbers per day.
Benefits
Cucumbers can be a great snack choice for people looking to stay healthy and well hydrated. Because of their aforementioned high water content, they are an excellent way to get more water into your system throughout the day if you are a person who has a hard time drinking a lot of water. Also, they make a great substitute for a dipping chip. I personally love to eat them with salsa or hummus.
Skin Care
Another great benefit of cucumbers is that they can be used for skin. Both as a means of first aid and as an anti-aging resource. You see the peal of a cucumber contains something called “Caffeic Acid”, this helps to soothe irritated and inflamed skin. That means that next time you get burned by your stove or even the sun you can use a cold slice of cucumber to help the healing process. Also, cucumbers contain silica. Silica is used to rejuvenate skin cells and help to keep them hydrated and plump. That’s why we have all seen women for years use slices under their eyes to fight that saggy skin.
It’s important to know the difference
Simply put, YES! More and more people deal with food allergies and it is very important for people to know what they are putting in there mouth. I personally have a reaction to some fruits with skin like apples, peaches, pears, Plums and on and on the list goes. If I eat the skin of these fruits raw then the inside of my mouth will actually itch. I’m not sure if I react to the fruit itself or the pesticides but it’s not the most enjoyable experience. It’s not dangerous as much as it is annoying. However, some people have more life-threatening reactions to things and it is important for those people to be aware.
Conclusion
A cucumber is not only a fruit but part of a very interesting family of fruits with many uses and applications. Everything from making pickles to soothing a burn the cucumber has got you covered. They are a great addition to any refrigerator and you may want to start keeping a few around. Thank you so much for reading and I hope you learned something. Make sure to check out a few of my other articles while you are here.
