tomatoes

Are tomatoes a fruit or a vegetable?. Botanically they are a fruit, technically they are a berry, but legally they are a vegetable. In a 1983 ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court the tomato was legally classified as a vegetable because it is used as one.

Tomatoes are usually red, but they can vary in color from yellow, to green and even brown. The shape and size can differ from round and small to elongated and large. There are around 7500 varieties grown for different purposes. To mention some, the globe, slicing tomato we find in supermarkets. beefsteak tomato, large used mainly for sandwiches. plum tomatoes, oblong in shape and used in tomato sauce, cherry tomatoes, small and sweet used whole in salads, campari tomatoes also sweet are larger than cherry tomatoes but smaller than plum tomatoes.
Commercially grown tomatoes are usually picked unripe  and ripened in storage with ethylene ( a hydrocarbon gas), tomatoes ripened artificially have a longer shelf life but poorer taste than those ripened on the plant. Also this tomatoes have a pink or orange color instead of the bright red shade of the ones ripened in the plant.

Nutritional Value

• Tomatoes are rich in lycopene, when cooked, specially with oil its nutritional value is enhanced, carotenoids are fat soluble nutrients,fat improves their absorption. The carotenoid lycopene has been shown in several researches to have an effect in the prevention and reduction of prostate cancer. Also there is evidence that lycopene in tomatoes protects against stomach and lung cancer.
• Lycopene is one of the most powerful anti-oxidants thus protecting the heart against oxidative damage and reducing the risk of heart attacks.
• Tomatoes also contain other powerful phytochemicals that fight disease, they are the three anti-oxidants: zero-carotene, phytoene and phytofluene.
• They contain phenolic acids that have the potential to fight lung cancer.
• If it wasn't enough, tomatoes shave lutein, a compound that protects the eyes against macular degeneration and helps prevent the thickening of the arteries (atherosclerosis).
• Tomatoes are an excellent source of vitamin C, mostly concentrated in the jelly like substance that surrounds the seeds. Tomatoes grown in a hothouse have half the amount of vitamin C than those vine- ripened.
• Also they contain vitamin A and B complex, as well as potassium and phosphorus.

http://www.cookingnook.com/facts-about-tomatoes.html

http://www.ehow.com/facts_5545383_nutritional-value-tomato-juice.html