How to tell if a tomato is a vegetable or a fruit? According to Taiwan’s academic research and official statistics, tomatoes are vegetables. Still, regarding people’s consumption habits, the large tomatoes often used in dishes are vegetables, and the tiny tomatoes with higher sweetness are regarded as vegetables.
Taipei, Taiwan (Business Northeast) – Do you like raw tomatoes? Or cook it before eating? Tomatoes are rich in many nutrients, but many people need to know whether it is better to eat raw or cooked. Don’t worry. These two eating methods have advantages, and the nutrients they can absorb are also different. Whether sliced directly as lettuce salad or boiled and mixed with oil for quick frying, they are all delicious delicacies beneficial to the human body.
In addition to eating tomatoes, raw can be made into tomato scrambled eggs, tomato egg drop soup, or processed into tomato sauce, a typical food in people’s livelihood. But did you know that raw tomatoes can get vitamin C, and cooked tomatoes can get more lycopene? Different cooking methods can get other nutrients, but the same thing is that they are all healthy and nutritious.
Tomatoes have about 95% water content. Raw tomatoes taste sweet and juicy and are rich in vitamin C. Every 100 grams contain 43.5 mg of vitamin C. They are known as “the warehouse of vitamin C.” It’s just that vitamin C will be destroyed when heated, so eating it raw without heating can better ingest complete vitamin C.
In addition to vitamin C, tomatoes are also rich in lycopene. Lycopene is a kind of carotenoid in phytochemicals. But as long as red and orange fruits and vegetables, such as watermelon, papaya, carrot, etc., all contain lycopene. Among them, the more lycopene, the redder the color will be. Fresh tomatoes contain about 1-8 mg of lycopene per 100 grams, which has been proven to be the fruit and vegetable containing the most lycopene.
Lycopene is fat-soluble and requires oil to release more quickly. Processing and cooking tomatoes can increase their nutritional value, especially their antioxidant properties and the body’s ability to absorb lycopene. Adding tomatoes to the oil and eating them together will make it easier for the intestinal tract to absorb its nutrients, and the absorption rate and utilization rate will be better.
Looking at the above statements, cooked tomatoes have the highest utilization rate of lycopene, while raw tomatoes can get more vitamin C. If there are no special needs, everyone can choose how to eat according to their preferences. Whether natural or cooked, balanced nutrition is the only way to be healthy. In addition, it should be noted that tomatoes are rich in potassium, and people with poor kidneys must eat them with caution.
