What's In a Tomato

Who doesn't love a fresh, juicy, red, ripe tomato in the summer time, right? I thought this was an American thing, but recently read that it's a worldwide favorite. In fact the world's top producer of tomatoes is China! They really do make everything in China I guess! Anyway, I got to wondering...we know tomatoes are healthy, but what exactly is in a tomato? How much of vitamin this and mineral that?

I found a couple of websites with information on the subject and one in particular turned out to be lots of fun. At nutritiondata.com there is a search box at the top that lets you type in any food and pull up a nutrition label that can actually be printed. It's just like the label on a can of soup or a pack of crackers! You cannot, however, re-use the images online. Otherwise I would have pasted one here for you to view.

Between nutritiondata.com and the other sites I visited, I put together a list of facts about tomatoes that I think is pretty astounding. Like I said before, I knew tomatoes were healthy, but do you know just how amazingly super nutritious these guys are? All of this data is based on one large sliced or chopped tomato, and all numbers are approximate because of variations in size, ripeness, and variety. Have a look and see if you learn anything new about these super-fruits, then click the link at the bottom to take the Great Tomato Quiz and test what you really know!

32 calories
90% water
fullness factor 4.5/5.0
nutrition rating 4.9/5.0
glycemic load 2 (rda = 100 or less)
mildly anti-inflammatory
helps reduce total cholesterol, LDL, and tryglycerides
vitamin c (39% rda)
vitamin a (30%)
vitamin k (18%)
potassium (12%)
molybdenum (12%)
manganese (10%)
fiber (9%)
b6 (7%)
folate (7%)
copper (6%)
b3 (5%)
magnesium (5%)
vitamin E (5%)
B1 (5%)
phosphorus (4%)
protein (3%)
tryptophan (3%)
choline (3%)
iron (3%)
high in lycopene and beta carotene, powerful antioxidants

Now head over to take the Great Tomato Quiz by clicking here. I missed three when I took it! If you are a blogger and would like to ad your post, head over to Simply Natural Saturdays at The Pistachio Project to sign up. Readers see all of the participating blog posts at The Pistachio Project also!