The season of fresh tomatoes has begun, and we tell you what their benefits are, how many tomatoes you can eat per day, which tomatoes are healthier, what to cook with them and how to select and store them.
What are the benefits of tomatoes
Once upon a time, tomatoes were considered poisonous, and no one would even think of eating the delicious red fruit. A lot of time has passed since then, and the benefits of tomatoes have long been proven. Here's how they can help you:
- tomatoes are a source of serotonin, the hormone of happiness. They are as mood-enhancing as chocolate;
- they normalize metabolism;
- tomatoes will help you lose weight and maintain youth;
- they improve the functioning of the gastrointestinal tract and heart;
- help fight diseases;
- help preserve vision.
What is the harm of tomatoes?
You should eat less tomatoes or give them up altogether in some cases:
- you have gallstones;
- Boiled tomatoes can cause kidney stones if you are prone to this;
- you increased acidity stomach;
- If you have an upset stomach, you should not eat tomatoes.
Which tomatoes are healthier, red or yellow?
Yellow tomatoes look quite unusual and very impressive. However nutrients and they contain less vitamins than red ones. However, unlike red tomatoes, they are suitable for those who are prone to allergic reactions, suffer from kidney disease and digestive disorders.
Eat raw or cook?
Interestingly, sun-dried, fried and stewed tomatoes contain much more lycopene than raw ones. This antioxidant will help prevent a variety of diseases, so if you have no contraindications, add these vegetables to main courses. And the rest of the vitamins are preserved in their raw form; most importantly, don’t forget to add to the salad vegetable oil so that they are all absorbed by the body.
How many tomatoes can you eat per day?
Doctors recommend eating at least 20 tomatoes a week (about 3 tomatoes a day) - this is the only way you will get all the beneficial substances they contain. If you do not have diseases for which it is not recommended to eat tomatoes, then you can eat 4 large tomatoes a day - there will be no harm from this, it will be completely beneficial.
How to select and store tomatoes
We talked in detail . In short, pay attention:
- on the color of the fruit near the tail: if it is greenish, it means that the tomatoes did not ripen on the bush;
- for hardness: the tomato should be elastic, not too soft or hard;
- smell: fresh ripe tomato, grown without nitrates, will be very fragrant;
- on integrity: in bruised or cracked tomatoes, pathogenic bacteria develop very quickly.
Tomatoes should be stored at room temperature, but it’s better not to put them in the refrigerator. The fact is that there they lose their aroma and nutrients. At room temperature they can be stored for up to 4-5 days, but it is better to eat them quickly so that the vegetables do not become overripe.
Tomatoes in cooking
They cook everything with tomatoes - even desserts! We have collected links for you to our favorite tomato dishes:
- relevant for summer with tomatoes and mint - very tasty, refreshing and unusual;
- another salad that cannot be imagined without tomatoes: , Italian appetizer with cheese;
- light, tender and fragrant ;
- toasted - It can be served for breakfast or as a snack.
And, of course, you can cook a lot with tomatoes
This fruit is quite easy to grow, so it is quite popular among amateur gardeners around the world. Just a few tomato bushes can provide you with fresh, aromatic tomatoes from mid-summer to early autumn. Since now is the time to start growing seedlings, we decided to tell you some interesting facts about this popular vegetable that you may not already know.
What does "tomato" mean?
The first tomatoes were imported from Peru, where the translation of their name from the Aztec language sounds like “a plump thing with a navel.”
The scientific name of this beloved vegetable is Lycopersicon lycopersicum, which means "wolf peach."
It's hard to believe, but people used to be afraid to eat tomatoes, considering them poisonous due to their connection with belladonna or the deadly nightshade plant.
Amazing facts
Tomatoes increase in weight as they ripen, even after harvest. Therefore, lying on the windowsill, an unripe tomato will not only turn red, but also gain a couple of grams.
Tomatoes are useful especially for the male part of the population. Tomatoes are the richest source of lycopene, which is important for health prostate gland in men. So you shouldn’t deny yourself this healing pleasure, but eat tomatoes in season as often as possible.
Tomatoes were first brought to Europe in the mid-1500s. And since then they have confidently won their place in the diet of Europeans, who use this fruit in many national dishes.
The first varieties that came to European countries were yellow color. It is not surprising that on Italian The name of this vegetable sounds like “pomodoro”, which means “golden apple”. Now it’s hard to imagine everyone’s favorite Italian pasta or pizza without this ingredient.
Today we are accustomed to calling a tomato a vegetable, but this is not entirely correct. A tomato is a fruit. Confusion arose after the 1890s, when the US Supreme Court labeled them vegetables for tax purposes. A fruit is the edible part of a plant containing seeds, a vegetable is a stem, leaf or root.
Space plants
We continue to find out Interesting Facts about tomatoes. It turns out that there is no mention of them either in the Bible or in the complete works of Shakespeare.
600,000 tomato seeds were sent to and from the International Space Station and then grown in school classrooms across Canada as part of the Tomatosphere I, II, III and IV experiments.
In total, there are more than 10,000 varieties of tomatoes, they can be completely unusual color, including pink, purple, black, yellow and white.
This is what it is like - such a familiar and such an unusual tomato.
Hi all! Tomatoes are familiar to everyone, what new can you hear about them? But there are still interesting facts about tomatoes! Thus, the original name of the well-known tomato is tomatl.
The French began to call this plant as it was convenient for them, i.e. “tomatoes”. In Russia, the Italian name for this plant has taken root - tomato (in Italian pomo d`oro, that is, “golden apple”). Both words have entered the Russian language. However, the former is used as a scientific term, while the latter is more suitable for colloquial use.
How did tomatoes appear?
Homeland of tomatoes - South America. The Incas and Aztecs grew this wonderful plant long before the advent of the new era. South American guests came to Europe, or rather, sailed, only after the Europeans discovered a new continent.
Initially, the suspicious plant was considered poisonous. Europeans did not eat it, but bred it as a ornamental plant. However, it was available only to very wealthy people. For example, only the French queen could afford to decorate her dress with tomato flowers.
Legend has it that the first person to risk eating a tomato was a certain Colonel Robert Johnson. This happened in the city of Salem, on the North American continent.
American colonists, like Europeans, were afraid to eat tomatoes. Colonel Johnson publicly ate dozens of tomatoes. The audience anxiously awaited what would happen next. However, the colonel remained alive and completely healthy, which refuted the myth that tomatoes are poisonous.
Few people know that there are at least 10 thousand types of tomatoes. The smallest varieties do not exceed a few centimeters in diameter. The largest tomato weighs about two kg.
Tomato holiday
This is how Tomatina is celebrated Below are some more interesting facts about tomatoes. Not every plant has its own holiday. But the tomato has it. The holiday is called Tomatina. This “dirty” celebration is held in the Spanish city of Buñol. Tomatina is celebrated in the last week of August.
This not very aesthetic holiday begins with the installation of a tall pillar greased with lard in the main square of the city. Several tons of tomatoes are brought to the square. The "orgy" begins after someone manages to climb onto the pole and remove the ham attached there.
After this, the start of action is given. Participants throw tomatoes at each other for an hour. Bringing objects that could cause harm to others (for example, bottles or sticks) is strictly prohibited.
Tomatoes in medicine
For a long time it was believed that tomatoes are aphrodisiacs. There was a myth that tomatoes not only increase sexual desire, they make a person more liberated, which means that in order to seduce the person you like, it is enough to feed her tomatoes. This opinion has been confirmed several times and refuted several times.
However, it was possible to accurately establish that the lycopene contained in tomatoes has a beneficial effect on male potency, and this is a very interesting fact about tomatoes. The same substance protects the male body from prostate cancer.
Feeling sad? Just eat a tomato! It promotes the production of hormones of joy and pleasure in the body. No antidepressant will do the job better.
A few quick interesting facts about tomatoes:
- 95% of a tomato's mass is water. That’s why it’s low-calorie, per 100g. tomatoes contain only 20 kilocalories;
- red tomatoes are richer in vitamins than yellow ones;
- a glass of tomato juice provides a person’s daily need for vitamins C and A;
- daily consumption of tomato juice, tomatoes or natural ketchup reduces the likelihood of developing cancer by 27%;
- green tomatoes contain solanine. This substance is toxic to humans.
Many will argue with me, but tomatoes are perhaps the main acquisition that Old World cuisines received after the discovery of America. It's hard to imagine what our world would be like if tomatoes didn't exist, but fortunately, you don't have to. Tomatoes are a reality given to us through sensations, and this reality suits me.
- The ancient Aztecs and Incas first began cultivating tomatoes at the beginning of the eighth century AD, but they first came to Europe only in the middle of the sixteenth century. Like other visitors from the New World, such as potatoes and tobacco, the tomato belongs to the nightshade family.
- Like other plants brought from the newly discovered continent, the tomato for a long time was considered poisonous. The American colonists did not escape this prejudice either. The terrible delusion reigned until 1820, when Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson publicly ate a bucket of tomatoes on the steps of the courthouse in Salem, New Jersey. The crowd of two thousand who had gathered for the performance was amazed to discover that the retired military man was not at all going to die in terrible agony - and the tomato began to rapidly gain popularity.
- The Aztecs called this fruit “matl”, the French changed the name in their own way, getting the “tomato” familiar to everyone. The name "tomato", in turn, comes from Italian and means "golden apple". However, the Italians are not the only ones who compared the tomato to an apple: the French also called it the “apple of love”, and the Germans called it the “apple of heaven”.
- There are at least 10,000 varieties of tomatoes. The smallest tomato is less than 2 centimeters in diameter, and the largest reaches a weight of almost 1.5 kilograms. There are red and yellow varieties of tomato.
- The biological identity of tomato fruits is a confusing matter. From a botanical point of view, a tomato is a berry. In 1893 Supreme Court The United States decided to consider tomatoes as vegetables, which, however, can also be found to have an economic basis: unlike fruits, the import of vegetables was subject to customs duties. The judge who made the decision concluded: “From a botanical point of view, the tomato, like cucumbers and beans, is a fruit or berry, as it grows on a vine and springs from a seed. But in the usual understanding of consumers, the above fruits are vegetables, since they grow in citizens’ gardens, like potatoes and cabbage. And also due to the fact that they are usually eaten for lunch after soup along with meat and fish and are not served as dessert, which distinguishes them from fruits.” In 2001, the European Union restored historical justice, at least in the Old World, by ordering that the tomato be considered a fruit. However, in everyday life, a tomato is still most often considered a vegetable.
- If we continue to talk about fruits, then the tomato confidently holds the palm: more than 60 million tons of tomatoes are produced annually in the world, which is 16 million more than the production of bananas. Apples are third with 36 million tons, followed by oranges (34 million tons) and melons (22 million tons). Most tomatoes are grown in China - 16% of global production.
- Tomatoes contain no cholesterol and are rich in vitamins A and C, with the highest concentration of vitamin C found in the jelly-like substance surrounding the seeds. In addition, tomatoes are rich in lycopene, an organic pigment from the group of carotenoids. Like other important amino acids, lycopene is not produced by the human body. Of all the carotenoids, lycopene is the most powerful antioxidant, and, in combination with vitamins C and E, protects our body from the damaging effects of free radicals. On top of everything else, consuming lycopene prevents cancer and heart disease!
- Low temperatures have a detrimental effect on tomatoes, so if possible, try not to store tomatoes in the refrigerator. Good tomato should be fleshy, with a smooth skin without dents or damage, bright red or red-orange in color.
- It is simply pointless to describe the areas of culinary use of tomatoes - there are so many of them. The main ones are the preparation of sauces and use in salads, although tomatoes can be eaten either on their own, fresh, baked, stewed or grilled, or in many dishes, which acquire an intense aroma and bright colors from this.
- In addition, the tomato tolerates canning remarkably well - 68% of cooks prefer to use canned tomatoes, not only because of convenience, but also due to the more rich aroma. In addition, beneficial substances are absorbed from such tomatoes much better: half a glass of canned tomatoes delivers 3 times more lycopene to the body than one fresh tomato.
Tomatoes are also a great illustration of why everyone should eat seasonally: they're just as plastic and tasteless in the winter as they are juicy and sweet in the summer. However, you can cook dishes that contain tomatoes in winter: I wrote detailed guide By canned tomatoes, which will help you navigate if you don’t have good ripe tomatoes on hand. In addition, I consider it my duty to offer you a few of my favorite recipes with tomatoes, in case this reading has awakened your childish appetite.
The hero of a famous fairy tale. And also a pompous, proud “fat-cheeked” handsome man. It’s not for nothing that they call him “Señor.” In addition, this noble nobleman also has a middle name - tomato.
We present you interesting facts about tomatoes. Every country in the world loves tomatoes. The tomato is one of the most common vegetables all over the world. Although in reality it is a berry. After all, a tomato is an annual bush with branched stems with a specific smell.
After flowering, berries are formed and reach sizes from 20 grams to a kilogram. The color of tomatoes is very different: from standard red to yellow, brown, orange and even black.
South America is considered the birthplace of tomatoes; in Russia, this crop appeared under Catherine II and was considered inedible, even poisonous. Today, no one thinks about the fact that once upon a time no one ate this berry.
Researchers have found that tomatoes contain a lot useful substances- these are: manganese, iodine, sodium, iron, zinc, glucose and fructose, as well as vitamins A, B, K, PP.
Tomatoes are popularly considered to be a natural antioxidant and help get rid of cardiovascular diseases.
Tomato is an ideal dietary product because it contains only 23 kcal per 100 grams of product.
The tomato diet helps not only to get rid of excess weight, but also cleanses the body of toxins and waste.
Interesting fact. Experts believe that tomatoes contain the hormone serotonin, the hormone of joy, and therefore can improve mood, which is very important in our time.
Since the red tomato is a red vegetable, it helps and has a great effect on the blood.
Tomato is especially useful for women; it helps preserve youth and beauty.
Here's another interesting fact. Recent studies have proven that tomato has the most beneficial effect on the prostate gland in men and the condition mammary glands in women, suppressing the processes of cancer formations. Tomato contains a substance called lycopene, which has an anti-cancer effect, which is reflected in slowing the growth of diseased cells and even destroying them.
It is best to eat tomatoes together with foods containing a fatty base, such as sour cream or vegetable oil.
Do not forget that tomato is an allergen. People who are prone to allergic reactions should avoid eating it.
Freshly squeezed tomato juice is ideal for patients with diabetes. Tomatoes also have diuretic properties, which helps get rid of swelling.
Another interesting fact. The British company Thompson & Morgan launched new variety- a hybrid of tomatoes and potatoes. The tubers are like potatoes, and the fruits are like tomatoes.
Other interesting facts about tomatoes are presented on the Internet.