THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN FRUIT AND VEGETABLES
The basic difference, for a layman, between fruit and vegetable is that which could be consumed raw is fruit while that could be consumed raw as well as cooked is vegetable. Botanically speaking fruit is the ripened ovary of a flower, either by itself or in combination with other structures that have matured with it as a single organic unit. Although this definition again refers to both fruit and vegetables, the term ‘vegetable’ in its broadest sense refers to any kind of plant life or plant product. It usually refers to the fresh edible portion of a herbaceous plant consumed either raw or cooked. The edible portion may be a root like beet, carrot, a tuber or storage stem like potato or calacosia; the bulbs such as onion and garlic, a leaf such as cabbage, lettuce, spinach or an immature flower like cauliflower, a seed like pea or green grams or an immature fruit like brinjal, cucumber or mature fruit such as tomato or chilly. There is also a difference. Those plants or parts thereof that are usually consumed with main course of a meal are popularly regarded as vegetables while those mainly used as desserts are considered fruits. These form an essential item of our diet. Vegetables supply some elements in which other food material are deficient and they neutralise acid substances produced in the course of digestion of meats, cheese and foods prepared with rich animal fats like ghee. The dark green leafy vegetables are rich source of carotene which is converted by the body into vitamin A. Vitamin C is also richly provided by leafy and green vegetables.
There are also some vegetables which are valuable sources of proteins or carbohydrates. Beans and peas are also rich in iron and protein, while potatoes are important sources of carbohydrates. It is an established fact that cooking and heat destroys nutritive value of the vegetables. Hence it is advisable to consume vegetables in as much raw state as possible. There are some vegetables like carrots, beans, spinach, turnip, cucumber, tomato, garlic, onion etc. which are mostly consumed raw although they are cooked also. This school believes that most of the diseases are caused by our having vegetables etc. not in the form they are produced. Over 2,400 years ago, Hippocrates, the father of medicine, said : “Let living (natural) food be thy medicine.” It is now being increasingly felt that we can get all the necessary nutrition for our body through our consuming only uncooked food. It has enough of vitality to ensure our healthy survival. Cooked food is considered as dead and actually unsuitable and unsage for the human body.
Drugs and operative methods on the body come and go. But fruit juice therapy has survived and flourished through the ages because of its unique benefits. Fruit juice therapy is very strong and effective as it removes the defect from the root. It has got no side-effects after-effects. It does not damage any part of the body as drugs do. Since they have no narcotic effect they don’t addict you. Nature has provided us with some life-saving fruits like mausambi (sweet orange), orange, garlic, onion, payaya, cucumber, bittergourd etc. As we know that toxins are the main cause of diseases we can’t get get rid of them unless we start taking raw fruits and vegetable juice. It is for this purpose we have selected a few chosen vegetable and fruit therapies for the benefit of our discerning and enlightened readership.
Garlic juice therapy | Amla (Indian gooseberry) therapy | Lemon juice therapy | Ginger Therapy | Papaya therapy | Karela (Bitter Gourd) therapy
