Vegetables do not command an appetizing sight, especially for children. However, what they lack in taste or flare, they more than makeup for in nutritional value. 

Entice your little one into taking more veggies by sharing the following fun facts about vegetables: 

• “Vegetable” means plants grown for food. 
• Cauliflowers sold in markets are usually white. However, it naturally comes in multiple colors – green, purple, orange, and the familiar white. The orange and purple varieties have the highest antioxidants, but they all taste the same. 
• Broccoli contains more protein than steak. If you are looking for a protein-rich diet, include broccoli into your recipes.
• Cucumbers are more than 90% water. Eating cucumbers can hydrate your body.
• Almonds are not nuts. They are seeds.
• Yams and sweet potatoes are different plants.
• The most nutritious part of the potato is just below its skin. 
• Tomatoes are believed to have some cancer-preventing properties, primarily because of high contractions of Lycopene.
• Kale has more vitamin C than oranges. If oranges are not in season, you can get some kale. 
• Before it was considered a vegetable, celery was used as medicine. 
• Carrots may be crunchy, but they are mostly made up of water.
• If you can’t get your hands on seafood, then consider getting kale instead. Like seafood, kale is an excellent source of Omega-3 fatty acids.
• Not all carrots are orange. Some are white, purple, red, or yellow. 
• There are a lot of vegetables that are fruits. Tomatoes, eggplants, bell peppers, cucumbers, peas, pumpkin, string beans, okra, avocado, corn, and zucchini are all fruits because they are developed from flowers. 
• The outside of the cucumber skin can be used to erase pen markings.
• Mushrooms are technically not vegetables. Vegetables are supposed to be from edible parts of a plant, while mushrooms are not even plants. They are fungi. 
• Lentils are a great alternative to meat. They offer as much protein, but they are also vegetables, so you get the best of both worlds. 
• The most expensive vegetable is the rare European white truffle (if you consider mushrooms as vegetables). A pound of this mushroom can go for as much as $2400.
• Hop shoots, the herbs of beer, are the world’s second most expensive vegetables. They fetch as much as $500 per pound. 
• The part you eat when you gobble up broccolis are the baby flowers that have not opened yet. The broccoli would be too bitter to eat when these flowers open up. 
• Corn and grass belong to the same family. 
• Potatoes are the first vegetable to grow in space. The first space potatoes were taken to space in 1996 aboard the space shuttle Columbia. 

Photo by Oleksandr Pidvalnyi

• Eggplants were once called “crazy apples” in Italy because people thought that those who ate a lot of eggplants went mad. 
• When cooking cabbage, aluminum utensils should be avoided because they chemically react with the vegetable. 
• A lemon can produce enough electrical energy to power a small motor.
• Radishes were used as wages to pay those who built the ancient Egyptian pyramids.
• Overeating large amounts of carrots can cause your skin to turn yellowish or orange. 
• For taxation purposes, the US Supreme Court classified tomatoes as vegetables even though they are fruits. 
• You can use beets to color your hair red temporarily. This is safer because you won’t have to worry about harmful chemicals that might pose a health risk. 
• Baby carrots are not young carrots. They are just a smaller variety of carrots whose mature size resembles an ordinary young carrot. 
• Potatoes can be an excellent alternative to bananas. They have more potassium but no fats. They also have vitamins and iron too. Just don’t throw away the skin. 
• Many vegetables contain toxins. Fortunately, they are all in small amounts, so they cause no harm. However, some other plant parts of these vegetables still contain enough toxins to make you seriously ill. 

Photo by Jacqueline Howell

• Spinach is good for you but doesn’t make you strong like Popeye. 
• Peeling the skin off some vegetables (potatoes, carrots, cucumbers) reduces the number of nutrients and fibers you get from them. Just wash them thoroughly and keep them intact. 
• The onion’s tear-jerking properties come from volatile sulfur compounds released when the onion is damaged or cut. This is part of the onion’s defense mechanism. Growing onions in a sulfur-poor medium will make your onions less pungent. 
• There is no such thing as a negative-calorie food. Even the leanest vegetables (like celery) contain calories, and the number of calories used in digesting them will still be too small to consume all the available calories in the food you’re eating. 
• Some vegetables in Alaska can grow to gigantic sizes because they have seasons when they receive 20 hours of continuous sunlight. 

Frequently Asked Questions on Vegetables 

What is the best vegetable to eat every day?

To get the broadest range of health benefits, try these vegetables daily:

• Carrots
• Broccoli
• Brussel sprouts
• Kale
• Spinach
• Beets
• Cucumber
• Spinach
• Tomatoes
• Onions

Can I live on vegetables alone?

Even with carefully selected vegetables, most people will not be able to live on just veggies. Vegetables have notoriously low amounts of vitamin B12, vitamin D, Omega-3 fatty acids, and other minerals like Iron. 

If you want to stick to a strict vegan diet, you need to know which vegetables offer these specific nutrients and increase your intake of these veggies. 

Which vegetables are best for the heart?

These vegetables help keep your heart healthy through their anti-inflammatory properties, reduction of cholesterol, healthier intake of potassium, as well as higher vitamins B6 and C content:

• Spinach
• Carrots
• Broccoli
• Garlic
• Squash
• Green beans
• Asparagus

What is the #1 consumed vegetable in the world?

Tomatoes are considered the most consumed vegetable in the world, with an average of 177.04 metric tonnes produced annually to meet global demands. Onions come in second with a yearly average of 93.17 metric tonnes.

What is the healthiest vegetable to eat?

The healthiest vegetable you can eat is spinach because it is the most nutrient-dense vegetable you can find. A cup of raw spinach gives you 16% of your daily value for vitamin A and 120% of your vitamin K. It also contains plenty of antioxidants to help you fight diseases.