KARACHI, Aug 10: The trend to eat more and more vegetables is becoming popular by every passing day in almost all parts of the world, because green vegetables are healthy and packed with nutrients.

It is said that if we had to choose but one food group, on the basis of sheer nutrition, it would certainly be vegetables. Vegetables are loaded with vitamins and minerals and have been shown to provide protection against a variety of illnesses.

Vegetable is a culinary term. Its definition has no scientific value and is somewhat arbitrary and subjective. All parts of an herbaceous plant that humans eat whole or in part is a vegetable, except for culinary fruits and arguably grains, nuts, herbs, and spices. Also, mushrooms are commonly considered vegetables, despite belonging to a different biological kingdom, namely fungi (which used to be classified as plants).

Vegetables include leaf vegetables (for example lettuce), stem vegetables (asparagus), root vegetables (carrot), flower vegetables (broccoli), bulbs (garlic) and botanical fruits such as cucumbers, squashes, pumpkins, capsicums, as well as legumes such as green beans, and fleshy, immature seeds such as those of peas or beans.

Vegetables are eaten in a variety of ways as part of main meals and as snacks.

The nutrient content of different types varies considerably. With the exception of pulses, vegetables provide little protein and fat.—PPI