Tomato – (Tuh-MAY-toh or Tuh-MAH-to) Pronunciation doesn’t matter when it comes to this fabulous nutritious fruit known as a vegetable. Lycopersicum esculentum in principle, tomate in French and kamatis in Tagalog. Tomatoes come in a variety of sizes, colors, and textures. Tiny currant tomatoes—red or yellow—are best eaten right off the vine or used as garnish. Cherry tomatoes—white, pink, pale yellow, bright orange, deep red, or green—are ideal raw in salads and salsas or grilled on skewers. Larger cherry tomatoes with a low percentage of water make delicious dried tomatoes. Plum tomatoes work well for sauces, soups, stews, jams, and chutneys, and, because of their dense flesh, for drying. Heirloom varieties, currently in its renaissance, are ideal for slicing as well as for salsas, sauces, soups and best for stuffing, although they often need draining or longer cooking because of their high water content.

Tomato is believed to have originated from South America and was brought by the Spaniards to Europe in the 1500’s then later spread throughout Asia. Tomato first came to Provence, France from Italy in the last half of the 18th century. Today, tomato can be found world wide and consumed by all people in all continents. The five top producers to tomatoes are: the U.S., China, Turkey, Italy and India.

After a few hundred years in European culture, the tomato has firmly implanted itself as a major player in diets of many nationalities. Italian cooking has become synonymous with tomato sauce. Pizza would be lost without it. Where would Mexican restaurants be without salsa? Tomato soup, slices on a burger and ketchup are all highly integrated uses for the versatile fruit. From one continent to another, the tomato has crossed through a variety of cultural barriers to become one of the world’s foremost vegetables.

Tomatoes are now grown worldwide for its edible fruits. Tomatoes are available year-round, but varieties will rotate depending on season and growing conditions. In the Philippines, February is the start of tomato growing season, as summer season starts. Tomatoes are considered as a hot weather crop. Tomatoes like heat and humidity. They are found throughout the Philippines in its original form, cultivated commercially and grown in gardens and farms as vegetable.

There are many varieties of tomatoes in the Philippines. There is the ‘native’ or ‘local’ variety with smooth and fairly thin skin and watery pulp. The local varieties do not keep well when transported since they have a higher liquid content than the tough-skinned and fleshy varieties grown for commercial purposes. These are varieties that are hydroponically grown such as romas, plums and cherries. Roma variety is egg or pear-shaped that is noticeable in red and yellow. Plum tomatoes have oval and cylindrical shape and generally have higher solid content that are more suitable for processing. A cherry tomato is a smaller garden variety of tomato, ranges in size from a thumbtip up to the size of a golf ball, and round to slightly oblong in shape. The Philippines ranks 64th among the countries that produce tomatoes in the world, with 14% contribution. Major producers are Pangasinan, Bukidnon, Misamis Oriental, Cebu, Laguna, Ilocos Norte, Ilocos Sur and Nueva Viscaya.

Tomato is the top source of Vitamin A and C in the western diet, based on the volume of consumption per person. It also contains a significant amounts of dietary fiber, beta-carotene, iron, lycopene, magnesium, niacin, potassium, phosphorus, riboflavin and thiamine.

Tomato is low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium. And unlike most foods, cooking or processing of tomato is beneficial to health. It increases its lycopene content (e.g. tomato paste, catsup, tomato soup, tomato sauce). This is so because as heating up tomato breaks down its cell walls and releasing more lycopene, a phytochemical that is beneficial to good health. Test also shows that eating tomatoes has more benefits (with all of its other ingredients) than taking lycopene alone.

Tomatoes are now eaten freely throughout the world, and their consumption is believed to benefit the heart among other things. Tomatoes are rich in lycopene, the carotenoid in tomato that is responsible for it’s and deep red color. Lycopene is a strong anti-oxidant that has many health benefits to the body. The foremost benefit of anti-oxidants is that it destroys cancer causing free radicals in the body. Lycopene is ten times more efficient in sniffing out free radicals than Vitamin E. Test shows that the more the consumption of tomatoes, the greater the affectivity. And the lower the risk of cancer – more so for prostate, stomach and lung cancers.

In addition to from helping prevent cancer, anti-oxidants in tomatoes help prevent premature aging and reduce the risk of chronic diseases while foliate in tomatoes reduces women’s risk of delivering a child with spinal cord and brain defects.

Is a tomato a fruit or a vegetable?

Botanically, a tomato is the ovary, together with its seeds, of a flowering plant. Therefore it is a fruit or, more precisely, a berry. Botanists use the terms fruit and vegetable to describe different parts of plants. True fruits are developed from the ovary in the base of the flower, and contain the seeds of the plant. Many people learn the botany short cut for this concept by describing fruits as foods with seeds.

The confusion about ‘fruit’ and ‘vegetable’ arises because of the differences in usage between scientists and cooks. Scientifically speaking, a tomato is definitely a fruit. True fruits are developed from the ovary in the base of the flower, and contain the seeds of the plant (though cultivated forms may be seedless). Blueberries, raspberries, and oranges are true fruits, and so are many kinds of nut. Some plants have a soft part which supports the seeds and is also called a ‘fruit’, though it is not developed from the ovary, the strawberry is an example. As far as cooking is concerned, some things which are strictly fruits may be called ‘vegetables’ because they are used in savoury rather than sweet cooking. The tomato, though technically a fruit, is often used as a vegetable. A ‘vegetable’ in human dietary terms, is any edible part of a plant, including stems, stalks and roots. It is non-seed bearing, so does not reproduce. So leaves, stems and roots are vegetative. And so are lettuce, carrots and potatoes as one of many.