WARNING: Tomato Is A Fruit, Don’t Fry It

Of course you knew it's a fruit, or did you?

"a world without tomatoes is like a string quartet without violins." - Laurie Colwin

You must be a tomato lover if you ended up clicking your way here. Do you eat your tomatoes raw or do you fry them? Or may be you do both. Former is a great health builder and the latter is a killer.

Knowing these tomato facts would let you in on the errors of your eating habits. It's a gastronomy scientific fact that cooking fruits makes it toxic. Tomato is a fruit, cooking it has the same effect - toxicity.

Raw tomatoes = Blooming health

Cooked tomatoes = Acidity, Gout, Hypertension, kidney stone, I am not kidding

In the words of Andre Simon, The Concise Encyclopedia of Gastronomy

"A cooked tomato is like a cooked oyster: ruined."

Enough with the quotes let get on with the meat (of the article I mean)

Why is tomato a fruit?

Because it has seeds. The scientific definition of a fruit is 'the fleshy or dry ripened ovary of a plant, enclosing the seed or seeds'. Everything you eat which has a seed or seeds is a qualified fruit. Tomato, I hope you noticed, is rife with seeds. That's solves the puzzle of is tomato a fruit, lets proceed..

Stop eating Fried "Killer" Tomatoes

What is it about frying that makes tomatoes toxic? They become extremely acidic. When taken raw tomatoes are alkaline in natural and highly beneficial to health. Upon cooking tomatoes, they become highly acidic and acidify your whole system.

Patients with Gout, a painful disease in which there is crystal formation along the joints, are asked to keep away from cooked tomatoes. Cooked tomato is the main food which causes gout. Increase in the uric acid content, in your body, will lead to problems like gout, hypertension, thyroid problems and kidney problems.

Some of the foods to avoid that causes gout

• Cooked fruits in any form (especially tomatoes)
• Meat
• Fish
• Baked Beans

So keep away from that southern fried green tomato recipe you have been planning to try. Fried green tomatoes or red tomatoes whatever be the recipe, its not good for your health.

Few Tomato Nutrition Facts

• Great source of sulphur, potassium, calcium, magnesium and iron
• Contains iodine, zinc and copper
• Great source of Vitamin C along with other vitamins

I have Gout and high blood pressure, can I eat raw tomatoes?

By all means, raw tomatoes are alkaline in nature. Raw tomatoes will not increase the uric acid content in your body the way fried or cooked tomatoes will. Just make sure you avoid eating cooked fruits at any cost. The nutrition facts of a tomato in itself should be a good reason to inculcate it in your vegetable salad everyday.

Let me end with a famous tomato quote

"It's difficult to think anything but pleasant thoughts while eating a homegrown tomato"-Lewis Grizzard

I don't know about homegrown tomato, but it better be raw.

Some Other Facts:

Is cucumber a fruit or a vegetable?

It's a fruit folks, believe it or not. It has seeds and so it's a fruits, in the world of science. In real life we call tomatoes and cucumbers vegetables because we grew up hearing our parents say that. It was just a sinister lie that you were told.

By the way I hope you are not frying a cucumber, that's just as toxic.

So let's take a small quiz based on what you have read so far

Q: What is the difference between a fruit and a vegetable?

A: Fruits have seeds, vegetables don't have seed.

Q: Are pumpkins considered a fruit or a vegetable?

A: Pumpkins have seeds, so pumpkins are fruits.

Q: Is watermelon a fruit or a vegetable?

A: It's a fruit of course, it has seeds