Hi there! I’m John Green, and welcome to my fun vegetable facts session! Did you know that Oklahoma’s official state vegetable is the watermelon? Yes, you heard that right! Even though watermelons are technically fruits, they are considered vegetables in Oklahoma, which has sparked quite a debate.
We often talk about fruits and vegetables, but did you know that “vegetable” isn’t a scientific term like “fruit”? It’s more about what we culturally decide. We usually think of vegetables as plants we eat that aren’t fruits, grains, or nuts. The word “vegetable” comes from a Latin word meaning “growing” or “flourishing,” which makes sense because vegetables help us grow strong and healthy!
There’s a lot of discussion about the best ways to store and cook vegetables to keep their nutrients. Vitamins like vitamin C and folic acid can be lost when vegetables are canned, frozen, or boiled. Interestingly, some studies suggest that frozen vegetables might keep more nutrients than fresh ones. For example, freezing okra is recommended to preserve its nutrients.
Did you know that vegetables have internal clocks? According to a study, these clocks help them stay healthy and keep bugs away. Scientists can even change these clocks by using light and dark!
Here are some cool facts about vegetables:
In 1984, Janet Harris set a world record by eating 7,170 peas with chopsticks in an hour! And in 1981, five chefs peeled over 587 pounds of potatoes in just 45 minutes. Did you know that salty potatoes were a popular dessert in the 18th century?
Thomas Jefferson brought squash and broccoli from Italy to grow in his garden, and Michelle Obama also loves gardening. During a government shutdown in 2013, her garden at the White House was left untended, leading to weeds and rotten vegetables.
In 2011, there was a big debate when Congress said pizza and french fries could count as vegetables in school lunches. Nutritionists weren’t happy, but many students were!
Here’s a fun trick: a study found that when kids were offered broccoli or a chocolate bar, most chose chocolate. But when an Elmo sticker was put on the broccoli, half of the kids chose it instead!
In the 1920s, there were “artichoke wars” in New York when a mafia leader tried to control the artichoke market. The mayor banned artichokes for a week, but people loved them too much for the ban to last.
Beet juice mixed with salt brine can prevent roads from icing and is better for the environment than regular road salt. A study showed that a diet with mushrooms and green tea might reduce breast cancer risk.
Zucchini was bred in Italy from American squash. In China, people say “eggplant” when taking pictures, like we say “cheese.” In 1955, Salvador Dalí arrived at a lecture in a car filled with cauliflower!
Charles Darwin was fascinated by how vegetables traveled across continents. He once fed a bird vegetable seeds, which unfortunately killed the bird. He floated it in salt water for a month, then planted the seeds, and they grew into plants!
Thanks for joining me on this vegetable adventure! Let me know your favorite vegetable in the comments. Mine is the watermelon! And remember, don’t forget to be awesome!
Imagine you’re part of a debate team. Your task is to argue whether watermelon should be classified as a fruit or a vegetable. Research both sides of the argument and present your case to the class. This will help you understand how cultural and scientific perspectives can differ.
Conduct an experiment to compare the nutrient content of fresh, frozen, and canned vegetables. Choose a vegetable, like spinach, and research how to test for vitamin C content. Present your findings to the class and discuss which method of preservation retains the most nutrients.
Create a simple experiment to observe the effects of light and dark on a vegetable’s internal clock. Use a vegetable like lettuce, and expose it to different light conditions. Record your observations and share how these conditions might affect the vegetable’s health and growth.
Try to set your own vegetable-related world record! Choose a fun and safe challenge, like peeling the most potatoes in a minute or stacking the tallest tower of carrots. Work in teams and see who can come closest to breaking a record. Reflect on the skills and teamwork needed to achieve such feats.
Explore the cultural significance of a vegetable from around the world. Create an art project or presentation that highlights its history, uses, and any interesting facts. Share your project with the class to learn about the diverse roles vegetables play in different cultures.
Sure! Here’s a sanitized version of the transcript:
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Hi, I’m John Green. Welcome to my salon! This is a Mental Floss video, and did you know that the official state vegetable of Oklahoma is the watermelon? As you can imagine, this is a subject of some debate in Oklahoma, as the watermelon is a fruit, and many politicians have tried to change it. But as of now, it remains the state’s official vegetable.
Anyway, that’s the first of many facts about vegetables or fruits that politicians believe to be vegetables that I’m going to share with you today. We started our episode on fruit by talking about what a fruit actually is, so let’s get into the requirements for being a vegetable, which is not really a botanical term like fruit is. It’s actually more cultural; we kind of collectively decide what vegetables are by excluding other types of things that grow in the ground, like fruits, grains, and nuts.
The word “vegetable” actually comes from a Latin word meaning “growing” or “flourishing,” and you probably know that vegetables contain nutrients that help us to grow and flourish. But there’s an ongoing debate on how to store and cook vegetables so as not to lose those nutrients. For instance, things like vitamin C and folic acid are especially vulnerable when it comes to being canned, frozen, or boiled. However, some studies have shown that frozen vegetables might actually maintain more nutrients than fresh vegetables.
I always say just buy whatever is cheapest, but some vegetables are definitely better frozen. For example, it’s actually recommended that you freeze okra to preserve its nutrients. According to a study published in a 2013 issue of Current Biology, vegetables have internal clocks that keep them healthy and repel insects. Researchers were able to manipulate those internal clocks by exposing the vegetables to light and dark.
The company Grimmway Farms has five different sizes of baby carrots; they call the smallest ones “caratini” because they’re tiny—it’s a pun! Tapioca comes from a vegetable known as cassava, but cassavas also contain cyanide, so they need to be prepared carefully. Another vegetable to be cautious with is rhubarb; the leaves contain oxalic acid, which can be poisonous if consumed in large amounts. Generally, we consider rhubarb to be a vegetable because of its taste, but in 1947, a New York court officially named it a fruit to reduce tariffs.
During the 19th century, a lot of celery was grown in Kalamazoo, Michigan, to the extent that the city started calling itself “Celery City.” Kalamazoo celery was actually white or yellow and considered sweeter than the green California celery that we mostly eat today. Similarly, Crystal City, Texas, is known as the world’s spinach capital for how much spinach they produced during the Great Depression, credited to the popularity of the cartoon character Popeye.
In 1984, a woman named Janet Harris broke a world record by using chopsticks to eat 7,170 peas in one hour. Speaking of vegetable world records, in 1981, a group of five chefs managed to peel over 587 pounds of potatoes in 45 minutes. In the 18th century, salty potatoes were a popular dessert. Thomas Jefferson imported squash and broccoli from Italy to grow in his garden, and another political figure who likes to grow vegetables is Michelle Obama. When the government shut down in 2013, the White House gardeners couldn’t tend to her vegetable garden, and when they returned, they had to deal with weeds and lots of rotten food.
In 2011, there was a huge controversy when Congress declared that pizza and french fries could be considered vegetables in school lunch standards. The controversy was primarily among nutritionists, while students everywhere were pleased. Interestingly, chickens are effective weed foragers and can assist asparagus farmers; according to one study, they were able to decrease weeds by 90% without eating the asparagus.
The Romans were among the first cabbage eaters and brought cultivated versions to Britain. They also enjoyed asparagus; Emperor Augustus even had an expression that translates to “faster than cooking asparagus,” which meant to hurry up. Scallions have many names in different languages, and red bell peppers are actually just ripened green peppers. Bagged lettuce in grocery stores is made up of small, misshapen heads of lettuce that would otherwise be discarded.
String beans got their name because they used to have a tough string inside, but nowadays they’re usually bred to be stringless. Romanesco broccoli is unique because it’s an approximate fractal occurring in nature, while the yard-long bean got its name for being about half a yard long. The shishito pepper is commonly eaten in Asian cultures, and about one in ten of them can be very spicy.
Here’s a trick to get kids to eat their vegetables: a 2010 study found that when children were offered broccoli or a chocolate bar, four out of five chose the chocolate. However, when researchers put an Elmo sticker on the broccoli, 50% chose it instead of the chocolate. In the 1920s, something known as the “artichoke wars” occurred when a mafia leader in New York started buying up every crate of baby artichokes from California to profit from them. The mayor of New York eventually banned the vegetable, but the ban only lasted a week because people loved artichokes.
Beet juice combined with salt brine creates a solution that effectively prevents roads from icing over and is better for the environment than standard road salt. One 2004 study showed that a diet containing mushrooms and green tea helped reduce the risk of breast cancer in Chinese women.
Corn grows on every continent in the world except Antarctica. Radishes grow super fast; their genus name means “quickly appearing” in Greek. According to a 1993 study, if you eat 20 pounds of eggplant, you’ve consumed the same amount of nicotine found in one cigarette. In 2012, Pizza Hut was the number one purchaser of kale in the United States, primarily used for decorating salad bars. In 2013, a group of scientists and students in London used a thousand Brussels sprouts to power a Christmas tree lighting.
It’s believed that zucchini was bred in Italy from squash that came from colonial America. For pictures, Chinese people often say the word for eggplant when we would say “cheese.” In 1955, Salvador Dalí was invited to a lecture in France and arrived in a Rolls-Royce filled with cauliflower.
Finally, I want to tell you about another historical figure who liked vegetables: Charles Darwin. He was fascinated by how vegetables traveled and ended up on multiple continents. At one point, he even fed a bird vegetable seeds, which killed the bird, but he floated it in salt water for a month, removed the seeds, and planted them, which did end up growing into plants.
Thanks for watching this episode of Mental Floss video, which was made with the help of all these lovely people. Let me know your favorite vegetable in the comments; mine is the watermelon! And as we say in my hometown, don’t forget to be awesome!
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This version maintains the essence of the original transcript while removing any informal language and ensuring clarity.
Vegetable – A plant or part of a plant used as food, typically as part of a meal. – Broccoli is a vegetable that is rich in vitamins and minerals.
Nutrients – Substances that provide the necessary components for growth and the maintenance of life. – Plants absorb nutrients from the soil to grow and produce food.
History – The study of past events, particularly in human affairs. – Learning about the history of ancient civilizations helps us understand how societies have evolved.
Science – The systematic study of the structure and behavior of the physical and natural world through observation and experiment. – Science helps us understand how the world works, from the smallest atoms to the largest galaxies.
Plants – Living organisms that typically grow in a permanent site, absorbing water and inorganic substances through roots and synthesizing nutrients in their leaves by photosynthesis. – Plants are essential to life on Earth as they produce oxygen and food through photosynthesis.
Vitamins – Organic compounds that are essential for normal growth and nutrition and are required in small quantities in the diet because they cannot be synthesized by the body. – Eating a variety of fruits and vegetables ensures that you get all the necessary vitamins for good health.
Broccoli – A green vegetable that is a member of the cabbage family, known for its nutritional benefits. – Broccoli is often recommended by nutritionists because it is high in fiber and vitamins.
Corn – A cereal plant that yields large grains, or kernels, set in rows on a cob; it is a staple food in many parts of the world. – Corn is a versatile crop that can be used for food, animal feed, and even fuel.
Potatoes – Starchy tubers that are a staple food in many parts of the world, known for their versatility in cooking. – Potatoes are an important source of carbohydrates and can be prepared in many different ways.
Carrots – Root vegetables that are typically orange in color and are known for being rich in beta-carotene, which the body converts into vitamin A. – Carrots are often eaten raw in salads or cooked in soups and stews.
