You've probably taken a bunch of these off your burgers over the years. Or picked around them in your salad. Or ... well, you get the point.
Tomatoes aren't exactly America's favorite fruit (yes, it is classified as a fruit, even though many people often mistake them for a vegetable), but there are a lot of great health benefits from adding tomatoes to your diet. But there are also some things to keep in mind when preparing and consuming tomatoes, too.
Comprised of 95% water, tomatoes are a great food to include when working to increase water intake in your diet. I often have a hard time drinking water, but eating foods with higher water content can help make sure I have more water in my system.
Another benefit of tomatoes is their link to heart health. Tomatoes contain an antioxidant called lycopene, which is responsible for their red color and is linked in higher blood levels of lycopene tied to lower death rates for people with metabolic syndrome, a cluster of risk factors that raise the chances of developing.
Now, here is a catch with tomatoes; because they are so full of water, adding them to certain dishes can make them too watery. If you've ever ordered a sub sandwich and left it in the refrigerator overnight, you'll pick it up and find that it is extremely soggy. Same thing with salads too; add tomatoes and leave a salad to sit too long, and the water content in the tomatoes will leak out.
So how do you cook with tomatoes? Tomatoes are best utilized as a topping or an addition to a dish at the last minute so that the water doesn't make the dish too watery. You can also use tomatoes as a base, stewed down for stews and sauces. You can also stuff the tomatoes, or eat them raw as a snack.
We about the love of tomatoes, so can I get some extra ones on my burger please?
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