What crossed your mind when you see this pulpy round fruit called tomato? Refreshing would one of the first things to cross my mind when I see tomatoes. Sweet and acidic may come later on. Delicious pastas would come afterwards. At a glace, you can see no disadvantages not to eat tomatoes. What about if I tell you that tomatoes still have other benefits to our health? Would not it be perfect to consume? Another fact is although an apple is made into a proverb saying that “an apple a day keep the doctor away”, but the tomato is more beneficial for our health compared to an apple.
Tomato is known in the scientific world with the name Lycopersicon esculentum. It is of the same family as the chili peppers, eggplant, and tomato as it belongs to the Solanaceae family. It comes in different varieties, colors and also sizes. Some of them are organic, some of them are hybrid and some of them are genetically modified. Although most of the tomatoes are red, but it does not mean that red is the only color as they come also in almost every color you know of; white, pink, orange, yellow, purple, green, etc.
Among the most popular tomatoes are the heirloom (which is the biggest tomato) and the cherry tomatoes (which is the smallest ones). The heirloom is producing more flavorful and natural tomatoes. This variety has become more popular, especially among the organic producers. They also have different varieties with different colors and they are not round. They have beefsteak shape that makes them more distinctable. One of their types is the Cherokee purple tomatoes.
They are grown all around the world and is one of the most favorite variety. On the other hand, the cherry tomatoes are the contrary of the heirloom in shape and size. They are small (about the same size of cherry and that is why they are called the cherry tomatoes), round and mostly red. They are more popular in the Mediterranean areas compared to the other areas in the world as they have been incorporated with some of the tastiest Greek and Italian cuisines for centuries.
The tomatoes are very nutritious as per 100 grams, they havL
18 Kcal energy
3,9 g Carbohydrates
0.9 g Protein
0.2 g Total Fat
1.2 Dietary Fiber
15 ug Folates
0.594 mg Niacin
0.080 mg Prydoxine
833 IU Vitamin A
13 mg Vitamin C
0.54 mg Vitamin E
7.9 ug Vitamin K
