Everyone talks about the properties of acai berry and blueberry and strawberry. I’m also sure you have heard the saying, ‘Knowledge is knowing tomato is a fruit, wisdom is not to put it in a fruit salad’. These two things tell you that tomato is a berry and belongs to the fruit family, but is grouped with the vegetables owing to its savoury taste, and also has the properties of the berries.
Super foods don’t have to be exotic. The fact that the humble tomato has been classified as a super food is testimony to the fact that super foods are not some marketing ploy. People think Mediterranean cooking is healthy because of olive oil alone. The pastas and pizzas contain a lot of tomatoes. It is believed that tomatoes play a huge role in wellness.
Cut a tomato and see if it resembles your heart! Not the Cupid heart, but the real heart. There is more than just a simple resemblance. The cut tomato will look like the chambers of the heart and when scientists discovered that tomatoes have a very high level of lycopene, a powerful antioxidant that works specially on the heart and blood vessels, all the natural food enthusiasts went, ‘I thought as much!’ And, a good tomato will have a super smooth skin, nice and shiny and firm. So when scientists found that the lycopene is very good for skin and keeps it youthful, guess what the natural food enthusiasts said? You got it!
The role of tomato consumption in preventing and treating breast cancers and prostate cancers have not been proven yet, but that should not stop you from eating tomatoes. Tomato purée is not devoid of any nutrients and purée has been found to lower urinary tract symptoms of enlarged prostates. Sun dried tomatoes have also found to be nutritionally adequate, but accurate studies are lacking.
So, go on and have a good dose of tomatoes, do not fry them, but learn to appreciate the taste of grilled tomatoes with cheese or simple fillings and you will have a not-so-expensive gourmet vegetable and super food. Can’t beat that value ■
— drwasim@yourwellnessdoc.com