Get to Know Your Body

This section of my website is designed to provide information that is interesting and relevant. It is for everyone, not only for patients after gastric bypass, sleeve gastrectomy, or gastric banding.

Just for kicks:

Fruit – The ripened ovary of a flowering plant that contains the seeds, sometimes fused with other parts of the plant. Fruits can be dry or fleshy. Berries, nuts, grains, pods, and drupes are fruits. Fruits that consist of ripened ovaries alone, such as the tomato and pea pod, are called true fruits. Fruits that consist of ripened ovaries and other parts such as the receptacle (the part at the top of the stem that bears the organs of a flower) or bracts (modified leaves), as in the apple, are called accessory fruits or false fruits.

Vegetable – Simply, the part of a plant that is grown primarily for food (the leaf of spinach, the root of a carrot, the flower of broccoli, and the stalk of celery are all vegetables). In everyday, nonscientific speech we make the distinction between sweet plant parts (fruits) and non-sweet plant parts (vegetables). This is why we speak of peppers, cucumbers, and squash as vegetables – because they have seeds, they are fruits in the eyes of a botanist!

Legume – Any of a large number of plants with a seed pod. Legumes live in a symbiotic relationship with bacteria in structures called nodules on their roots. These bacteria are able to convert nitrogen from the air into compounds that the plants can use. Beans, peas, clover, alfalfa, locust trees, and acacia trees are all legumes.