Tomato myths still sow many seeds of confusion

[AsahinaKimi]

This Aug. 1, 2011 photo shows a grilled tomato tart in Concord, N.H. Tomatoes are best picked absolutely ripe, so if you have access to a farmer’s market selling freshly picked tomatoes, grow your own or are lucky enough to have a generous and green-thumbed friend, you’re getting tomatoes at their best and juiciest. (AP Photo/Matthew Mead)

This debate has been adjudicated by none other than the U.S. Supreme Court.

Any way you slice it, the tomato is one confusing comestible.

There's the whole identity crisis thing -- is it a fruit or a vegetable? And don't get us started on the tuh-MAY-to, tuh-MAH-to thing. It's enough to drive anyone ba-NAY-nas.

Here are what tomato lovers and experts have to say about some common misconceptions about this vine product.

FRUIT OR VEGETABLE?

This is the kind of thing that can spark quite the argument, with both sides passionately supporting their claims. Oddly enough, both are right, at least according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service. Yes, botanically speaking the tomato is a fruit, but horticulturally and legally, it is considered a vegetable.

more..believe it or not..
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/odd/news/20110815p2g00m0dm047000c.html

[Manifestor_of_Light]

1. I'm allergic to them. They give me hell. So I got no dog in this fight.

Yeah, call me a commie. I can't eat pizza.

[Fleshdancer]

4. that sucks!

white sauce pizza is just not the same. :(

[XemaSab]

11. I thought I was the only person on the planet who was allergic

:(

[notadmblnd]

12. you could eat a chicken alfredo pizza or a BLT pizza

and boy are both good!

[PVnRT]

2. It's a fruit

It got called a vegetable because of legal nonsense and lobbying.

[AsahinaKimi]

3. Wasn't it Ronald Reagan

Who tried to make it be a "Vegetable" aka Ketchup/Catsup ?

[PVnRT]

6. Yes

The Supreme Court decision referenced, though, happened in the late 1800s.

[DefenseLawyer]

7. They tried to say serving ketchup with school lunches

met the requirement that a "vegetable" be included in the meal.

[handmade34]

5. saw recently somewhere...

"Knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit; wisdom is knowing not to put one in a fruit salad"

[AsahinaKimi]

8. Thats outstanding..

:thumbsup: Like!

On second thought..have you ever tried a grape Tomato? If left in a fruit salad, no one would complain!

[dtexdem]

9. Attack of the killer tomatoes!

Quick, get the KGB chicken!

[saras]

10. It's not the place of "the law" to decide. How stupid.

But once you pass a handful of stupid laws, you have to keep going with the implications of your original assumptions. In this case, the fact that someone thought we ought to treat imported produce differently depending on whether it was "dessert" or not was the stupidity that required this decision.