STEEMCHURCH FARMS THEME WEEK #1 TUESDAY: HEALTH BENEFITS OF THE NIGHTSHADE BERRY - (TOMATOES)

in farms •  7 years ago  (edited)


Red tomato

Still speaking on the subject of vegetables, from my last post, I wrote about a fruit from the nightshade family which generally considered to be a vegetable. Today’s post looks somewhat like a continuation of that article, as our subject today, the tomato which technically is also a fruit but it is generally regarded as a vegetable. It also belongs to the nightshade family just like peppers as well.

Some of you might be curious as to why pepper and tomato are fruits, after all, when shopping in a grocery store they are always placed side by side with other vegetables e.g cabbages, onions, green leaves, e.t.c.

However, they are really just fruits and these are the reasons why:

  1. They have seeds as with other fruits, vegetables do not
  2. They are fruits or berries of flowering plants.

Moving on, let’s focus on the topic on ground. We’re going to be looking more at health reasons why you should grow tomato and inculcate them into your diet rather than how.

Tomato is a very nutritious vegetable and as other vegetables are, its benefits are outstanding. Tomatoes exist in a variety of colours, though predominantly red, it’s other colors include yellow, orange, black, purple, green and brown...yes, shockingly so!


Coloured tomato seeds planted together and fully grown

It constitutes much of a variety of foods such as ketchup, pizzas, pasta, stews, soups, juices, ketchup, you name it. It is a widely used vegetable and its popular application is due to the fact that it can go along with almost any dish. It adds a wonderful flavour and an inviting colour when set on a plate.

Besides the aesthetic and taste-friendly nature of this vegetable, it also contains a large variety of minerals, vitamins and other compounds such as; vitamin c, k and b9(folate), potassium, lycopene, beta-carotene, naringenin, chlorogenic acid. Chlorophyll is the dominant compound that gives the tomato its green color prior to ripening. When ripening begins, chlorophyll content reduces and carotenoids are synthesized to give it the red color.

Health and Nutritional Benefits

1. Protects the Eyes


Img src

Light-induced damage, macular degeneration of the eyes due to age and the development of cataracts can all be avoided through the consumption of tomatoes because they contain a rich amount of lutein, beta-carotene and lycopene in other words, anti-oxidants that protect the eyes.
A study by AREDS showed a 35% reduction in the risk of neovascular macular degeneration of the eyes due to ageing.

2. Vitamin C

The uses of vitamin c in the body are too numerous to count. It is a powerful antioxidant that is necessary for growth, development and repair of all body tissues, It is involved in the formation of collagen, the immune system, healing of injuries, teeth and bone maintenance, absorption of iron, e.t.c. of which tomatoes are a rich source.

3. The Skin

As earlier mentioned, tomatoes contain vitamin c which is used by the body in the formation of collagen. Collagen is an important component of the human skin, connective tissue, hair and nails.


Skin treatment using raw tomato mixture

With the impact of the sun getting harsher by the day, air pollution on the rise due to industrial and vehicular discharge, our skin stands a greater risk of adverse health effects such as blemishes, sagging skin, wrinkles. The human skin has never been in more need of vitamin c.

4. Rich in potassium that helps the heart


Tomato heart illustration

Tomatoes contain potassium which reduces the risk of cardiovascular disease, prevents the muscles in the body from deteriorating and reduces the formation of kidney stones which could lead to a damaged kidney.

5. Protects the body against cancers

The red color of tomatoes comes from the lycopene contained in it. This compound combats cancer formation in the human body. Beta-carotene, also a component in the human body protects it against prostrate cancer.In terms of plant compounds found in tomatoes, lycopene constitutes the highest
To avoid purchase of tasteless tomatoes, I strongly recommend that you purchase them locally or grow your own as tomatoes are often harvested on carried to shops while they are still immature and unripe then they are ripened with artificial ethylene gas rather than the hormonal ethylene gas produced naturally by the plant.

Some fun facts

• Medium sized tomatoes contain about 95% water, the remaining 5% constitutes mainly fiber and carbs (carbohydrates).
• It would interest you to note that two centuries ago, the United States thought that tomatoes was poisonous because it belongs to the toxic nightshade family.

Tomatoes like I said earlier can be inculcated into almost any meal and this crop if I may suggest to @farms would be very vital in not only feeding the poor and hungry but also enriching them with nutrients that would help boost their immune system, reduce the effects of ageing and fight diseases.


tomato in hot dog and potato fries

Tomatoes are always on demand in the market because of their all-round use. A farm that grows such a crop in large quantities will be able reach a whole lot of people. And who says in feeding the world, we have to deliver only raw foods? Tomato can be made into paste and ketchup, canned and distributed all over. This would definitely bring about a packaging centre for the @farms thus expanding the project and its reach.

Small variety of tomato products

Thanks for viewing

See you again next time!

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Very informational post. Never knew some of these things about tomatoes. I found you through the #payitforward contest. You were featured by @cuppcake. Congratulations.

Thanks for stopping by! @energyaddict22
It's truly amazing the level of information we get to pass across through the steemit platform and i'm indeed grateful to @cuppcake and the organizers of the #payitforward contest for the opportunity to be featured.
I do not know your level of tomato intake, but I hope the post causes you to purchase and consume more! cheers! :D

Wanted to let you know that @cuppcake featured you in their entry to the Pay It Forward Curation Contest.

There is a first time entry bonus for those who come join the contest that you might be interested in. Read that post for how to qualify for the bonus.

Little FYi that might save you from some issues down the road. Not sure if you got permission on each of those photos, but really guessing you didn't. It's not legal to just pull photos from another website as each photo is legally protected by copyright laws. Use your own photos, photos with written approval, or ones with a CC0 license that allows for Commercial Use, you are profiting so it needs to be free to use commercially.

Thanks for the info! @thedarkhorse
I used to think that sourcing photos was all that was required in using photos, now I know better. I will definitely look into it...gee! I definitely do not want to be doing anything illegal.
Thanks again for bringing this to my notice, it is very much appreciated.

Thank you for actually taking this to heart and I hope you change how you source your images in the future. While I give people the info/a warning first and then let them hopefully change their ways there are others who will just flag someone for taking images. There is even an account that others can report you to and if the account finds that you took content (including images) they will flag you down to 0.00 payout and pay the person a finders fee for reporting the issue. So big picture the legal issues honestly are serious, but also it's painful to have all your earnings on an otherwise good post erased due to not understanding the laws on copyright.

  ·  7 years ago (edited)

wow! this is serious...I believe this info is even worth making a post about for so many people out there who do not know this. I have seen some otherwise well written posts with some good earnings of up to $300+ get flagged and I didn't know why...I guess this is one reason.
Thanks again man!

Many times if something got $300 in rewards it was with the use of bid bots and probably wasn't that well written...or at least not good enough to deserve a $300 payday in the eyes of some. If they find stolen content and you have that level of payout you are guaranteed to end up at zero as the community as a whole will rally behind those that catch it.

This is worth a read if you have time:
https://steemit.com/steemit/@bjgeese/why-are-you-picking-on-me-because-you-are-a-lazy-thief

He was very blunt about the topic so try not to take offense to it. But the message about how using content without permission can effect steemit is pretty dead on. Knowledge is power and now you know about it.

Make sure to find a way to tag me in your next post. I'll check it out and give you an upvote for using all original content. The quality can be lower as long as it's all yours or CC0 images I'll reward you for doing it the right way.

Knowledge is power! @thedarkhorse and i'm up for grabbing as much of it as possible wherever I can. I just checked out the post and you are right @thedarkhorse, this is pretty serious! However blunt, the message needed to be passed across and I appreciate his efforts.
Thanks for the gesture, I will do well to tag you in my next post. Have a swell day man!

I wanted to add to this. I paid for mine through a site called DepositPhotos. There are other sources one can get free pictures but I have lost the names/links. If you don't mind paying for them, appsumo will run a promotion once or twice a year for DepositPhotos where you get 100 for 39.00. You can download them as you need them. I bought up a few plans over the years for the books I was publishing which is why I am using them.

England has some sort of government library that offers copywrite free images, but I can't remember the name of it.

Thanks for your contribution! @practicalthought
I will do well to check out the DepositPhotos site you mentioned, probably use a search engine to locate the actual websites as well as look for other sites with a similar function.
Do have a great day! :D

Beautiful post @ossyjay. You post the most amazing write up and just in case u dont know, your are my mentor.

Oh wow! that's so sweet of you to say! thanks for the positive feedback @cuppcake It feels great to know that I inspire someone, really means a lot.

You sure have found a lot of great information on the common tomato. Those purple ones are very pretty. Wonder how the nutrients stack up on those.
I found you through the Pay It Forward contest. You were featured by
@cuppcake

It is basically the same as the one for the red! chloropyll is responsible for plant pigmentation (color) and in the case of the purple tomato, a green flesh gene prevents the normal chlorophyll breakdown. The resulting effect is the generation of a brownish compound which when it mixes with the red/pinkish color of the tomato could result in black or purple colors.
Thanks for stopping by! @headchange

Thanks for the extra info. You sure do know your tomatoes

I love a good fresh ripe tomato, found your post from @cuppcake's "pay it Forward" contest entry. And I am glad they featured you since your post was a nice read.

So nice of you to stop by! @bashadow
I'm glad you love tomato as do I!...thanks for the positive feedback...do have a great day :D

I found your post by a feature including you authored by @cuppcake for the Pay it Forward contest. You packed a lot of information on my favorite vegetable (sorry, I was taught back in the day it was a vegetable and as it is one of the few I love to eat, it is remaining a vegetable in my vocabulary). I look forward to reading more of your posts.

Haha! no worries @practicalthought you are very free to still refer to it as a vegetable. Thanks for stopping by this time, you might want to hang around though...you might just learn something else! #winks

Thanks for sharing this posts! very informative post.

Thanks for stopping by @alibaba30

Congratulations you have been upvoted and resteemed as part of #newbieresteemday's top 10 posts for the day! We invite you to use our tag to connect with more of our members. To learn more: Come Join Us!!! (Newbie Resteem Initiative)



Great job @ossyjay!
-@smylie2005

Thank youuuu! @newbieresteemday and @smylie2005 for all the resteems. You are doing great work here on steemit.

You're welcome @ossyjay, so are you!

What a bunch of info packed into one post! Did you know tomatoes and other nightshade plants contain nicotine? Fun fact, right?
I found you through the #payitforward contest. You were featured by @cuppcake
I upvoted your other post as I am late getting to curating this one.
~ErodedThoughts

oh wow, that is some added information! @eye4art...thanks a bunch for that and for the upvote!