As most reference books say, tomato is a plant of the nightshade family. In Latin, the name of the culture is Solánum lycopérsicum. Tomato is cultivated as a vegetable crop, and its fruits are most often called tomatoes. In this case, the type of fruit is a berry. Does this mean that a tomato is a berry?
Today, due to the fact that the tomato has valuable nutritional and dietary properties, a variety of varieties, as well as a high responsiveness to proper care during cultivation, it is one of the most popular crops on the entire planet. Tomatoes grow in open ground, they bear fruit well under the film, in glass and film greenhouses. You can often see this plant on balconies and loggias, and sometimes on window sills in rooms.
Using this culture, we almost never think whether a tomato is a berry or a vegetable? And this issue was even the cause of the trial. So, back in 1893, the Supreme Court of the United States issued a verdict according to which the tomato was considered a vegetable. Perhaps the reason for this decision was in the economic plane. After all, the import of vegetables,unlike fruit, was subject to customs duty. But be that as it may, the decision was made on the basis that the tomato is usually eaten as a second meal with meat or fish.
That is, this culture is not a dessert, which distinguishes it from fruit.
But the claims that the tomato is a berry have not stopped. And they found their confirmation at the official level relatively recently - in 2001.
Then the EU authorities ordered to consider the tomato as a fruit.
But ordinary people, both in European countries and in our country, still for the most part consider a tomato a vegetable.
However, from whether a tomato is a berry or a vegetable, its properties do not become less useful. Lycopene is a unique natural substance that tomatoes contain in large quantities, it has simply miraculous properties. Thanks to this substance, eating tomatoes helps to reduce the concentration of cholesterol in the blood and lower blood pressure. Lycopene in large quantities also actively fights obesity and blood clots.
It is very useful for middle-aged men to eat tomatoes. After all, if their body does not have enough lycopene, the risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke increases three times. An antitumor effect, an obstacle to the division of cancer cells, which prevents the development of oncology, is also attributed to tomatoes. Tomato berry, by the way, is one of the few plant crops that do not lose their beneficial properties when exposed to high temperatures. Moreover, the amount of lycopene in tomatoes attheir boiling or frying increases by one and a half times. According to scientists at the Memphis Cancer Center, eating fresh or cooked tomatoes every day can significantly reduce the risk of skin (melanoma) and prostate cancer and eliminate some cardiovascular diseases.
But still, is a tomato a berry? Not important. The main thing is that the tomato is tasty and he althy.
