table and select

Hello,

Say I have a table FRUIT defined as:
f_id primary key autoincrement
f_field1
f_field2
..
..
f_fruit_type
..

I could do:
"select * from table FRUIT where f_fruit_type = 'apple'";
and that is FIRST WAY to do it.

Now another way is whenever someone input and insert a row into table FRUIT that has fruit type = 'apple', I will insert also into TABLE APPL, defined as
ap_id primary key autoincrement
ap_fruit_id //foreign key is f_id as above

Then to list all rows that fruit type = 'apple' in table FRUIT, I do:

"SELECT f.*
FROM table FRUIT f, APPL a
WHERE f.f_id = a.ap_fruit_id "

OK, so this is the SECOND WAY to find fruit type = 'apple', but it requires 2 tables.
Which way is more efficient and better?

Thanks,
John