The tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) is a fruit from the nightshade household native to South America.
Regardless of botanically being a fruit, it’s typically eaten and ready like a vegetable.
Tomatoes are the key dietary supply of the antioxidant lycopene, which has been linked to many well being advantages, together with lowered threat of coronary heart illness and most cancers.
They’re additionally an awesome supply of vitamin C, potassium, folate, and vitamin Ok.
Normally purple when mature, tomatoes can even are available in a wide range of colours, together with yellow, orange, inexperienced, and purple. What’s extra, many subspecies of tomatoes exist with completely different shapes and taste.
This text tells you every little thing you should learn about tomatoes.
Vitamin information
The water content material of tomatoes is round 95%. The opposite 5% consists primarily of carbohydrates and fiber.
Listed here are the vitamins in a small (100-gram) uncooked tomato (1):
Carbs
Carbs comprise 4% of uncooked tomatoes, which quantities to fewer than 5 grams of carbs for a medium specimen (123 grams).
Easy sugars, resembling glucose and fructose, make up virtually 70% of the carb content material.
Fiber
Tomatoes are an excellent supply of fiber, offering about 1.5 grams per average-sized tomato.
Many of the fibers (87%) in tomatoes are insoluble, within the type of hemicellulose, cellulose, and lignin (2).
Nutritional vitamins and minerals
Tomatoes are an excellent supply of a number of nutritional vitamins and minerals:
Different plant compounds
The content material of nutritional vitamins and plant compounds in tomatoes can range significantly between varieties and sampling intervals (8, 9, 10).
The primary plant compounds in tomatoes are:
Chlorophylls and carotenoids like lycopene are chargeable for the wealthy shade of tomatoes.
When the ripening course of begins, the chlorophyll (inexperienced) is degraded and carotenoids (purple) are synthesized (15, 16).
Lycopene
Lycopene — probably the most ample carotenoid in ripened tomatoes — is especially noteworthy with regards to the fruit’s plant compounds.
It’s discovered within the highest concentrations within the pores and skin (17, 18).
Usually, the redder the tomato, the extra lycopene it has (19).
Tomato merchandise — resembling ketchup, tomato juice, tomato paste, and tomato sauces — are the richest dietary sources of lycopene within the Western eating regimen, offering over 80% of dietary lycopene in america (20, 21).
Gram for gram, the quantity of lycopene in processed tomato merchandise is commonly a lot larger than in contemporary tomatoes (22, 23).
For instance, ketchup boasts 10–14 mg of lycopene per 3.5 ounces (100 grams), whereas one small, contemporary tomato (100 grams) holds just one–8 mg (24).
Nevertheless, needless to say ketchup is commonly consumed in very small quantities. Thus, it could be simpler to bump up your lycopene consumption by consuming unprocessed tomatoes — which even have far much less sugar than ketchup.
Different meals in your eating regimen might have a powerful impact on lycopene absorption. Consuming this plant compound with a supply of fats can improve absorption by as much as 4 instances (25).
Nevertheless, not everybody absorbs lycopene on the identical price (26).
Despite the fact that processed tomato merchandise are larger in lycopene, it’s nonetheless beneficial to eat contemporary, complete tomatoes at any time when doable.
Well being advantages of tomatoes
Consumption of tomatoes and tomato-based merchandise has been linked to improved pores and skin well being and a decrease threat of coronary heart illness and most cancers.
Coronary heart well being
Coronary heart illness — together with coronary heart assaults and strokes — is the world’s commonest explanation for dying.
A research in middle-aged males linked low blood ranges of lycopene and beta-carotene to elevated threat of coronary heart assaults and strokes (27, 28).
Growing proof from medical trials means that supplementing with lycopene might assist decrease LDL (dangerous) ldl cholesterol (29).
Medical research of tomato merchandise point out advantages towards irritation and markers of oxidative stress (30, 31).
In addition they present a protecting impact on the inside layer of blood vessels and will lower your threat of blood clotting (32, 33).
Most cancers prevention
Most cancers is the uncontrolled development of irregular cells that unfold past their regular boundaries, typically invading different components of the physique.
Observational research have famous hyperlinks between tomatoes — and tomato merchandise — and fewer incidences of prostate, lung, and abdomen cancers (34, 35).
Whereas the excessive lycopene content material is believed accountable, high-quality human analysis wanted to verify the reason for these advantages (36, 37, 38).
A research in girls exhibits that top concentrations of carotenoids — present in excessive quantities in tomatoes — might defend towards breast most cancers (39, 40).
Pores and skin well being
Tomatoes are thought-about useful for pores and skin well being.
Tomato-based meals wealthy in lycopene and different plant compounds might defend towards sunburn (41, 42).
Based on one research, individuals who ingested 1.3 ounces (40 grams) of tomato paste — offering 16 mg of lycopene — with olive oil each day for 10 weeks skilled 40% fewer sunburns (43).
Business ripening course of – “is tomato protein”
When tomatoes begin to ripen, they produce a gaseous hormone referred to as ethylene (44, 45).
Commercially grown tomatoes are harvested and transported whereas nonetheless inexperienced and immature. To make them purple earlier than promoting, meals corporations spray them with synthetic ethylene gasoline.
This course of inhibits the event of pure taste and will end in tasteless tomatoes (46).
Subsequently, regionally grown tomatoes might style higher as a result of they’re allowed to ripen naturally.
In case you purchase unripened tomatoes, you may pace up the ripening course of by wrapping them in a sheet of newspaper and preserving them on the kitchen counter for a number of days. Simply ensure to examine them every day for ripeness.
Security and unintended effects
Tomatoes are typically effectively tolerated and tomato allergy may be very uncommon (47, 48).
Allergy
Though tomato allergy is uncommon, people allergic to grass pollen usually tend to be allergic to tomatoes.
This situation is known as pollen-food allergy syndrome or oral-allergy syndrome (49).
In oral-allergy syndrome, your immune system assaults fruit and vegetable proteins which can be just like pollen, which results in allergic reactions like itching within the mouth, scratchy throat, or swelling of the mouth or throat (50).
Folks with latex allergy can even expertise cross-reactivity to tomatoes (51, 52).
The underside line
Tomatoes are juicy and candy, filled with antioxidants, and will assist combat a number of ailments.
They’re particularly excessive in lycopene, a plant compound linked to improved coronary heart well being, most cancers prevention, and safety towards sunburns.
Tomatoes generally is a helpful a part of a nutritious diet.
“is tomato protein”