Do you remember the shock you felt when you first learned that tomatoes are a fruit? “Tomatoes aren’t fruit! They’re a vegetable!” The truth is that tomatoes are a fruit because they come from the ovary of a flower and contain the plant’s seed. That is the criteria.
Even if tomatoes have to be a fruit, they can still be a remarkable product.
It is believed that tomatoes came from Peru hundreds of years ago. The name “tomato” comes from the Aztec word “xitomatl”, which means “plump thing with a navel”. The scientific name for a fruit literally means “wolf peach”.
Since it was discovered, tomatoes have garnered world popularity. They are the fourth most-consumed market product behind potatoes, lettuce, and onions. The average person in the US eats about 23 pounds of tomatoes a year. Seventy-five percent of this is in processed form (e.g. ketchup, salsa and tomato sauce).
Did you know that more money is spent on salsa every year than on ketchup?
In the US, California produces 96% of all processed tomatoes. Florida produces the most fresh-market tomatoes. Some people–93% of people in the US actually—grow tomatoes in their gardens or homes. Tomatoes are easy to grow and can be grown in all 50 US states. There are approximately 10,000 varieties of tomatoes.
Tomatoes are one of the healthiest fruits. In fact, they have more health benefits than apples. They are very low in fat and calories and have no cholesterol. Tomatoes contain several antioxidants that prevent certain types of cancer. Some studies have shown that men who eat more tomatoes are less likely to have prostate cancer.
Tomatoes have lots of Vitamin C and Lycopene. Both of these fight sickness and infection, and rid your body of free radicals. Free radicals are dangerous substances in your body that cause cancer and health problems.
Tomato festivals are popular around the world and in the US. Every year in Spain, about 30,000 people get together for a tomato fight. They use approximately 100 tons of tomatoes.
Tomatoes really are a fantastic fruit!
Winter is still upon us; in some places more than others. But before you know it, spring will be here. The start of spring means warm weather, being able to play and exercise outside again, and of course spring allergies.
There is a reason Dr. Sesus wrote “How the Grinch Stole Christmas” all those years ago. It is an extreme example of what happens to people who feel the holiday blues. We all face hard times and struggle to make holidays worthwhile, but sometimes the stress of the holidays just gets to us. In this blog, we will discuss reasons why we get the blues, and step to take to prevent them.
Now that Christmas is coming along in just a few short weeks, it is important to know that things will go wrong, someone will buy the same toy as you, and you will be expected to give the toast. Keeping these things in mind will help prepare you for the tough times ahead and reduce unwanted stress.
We are all familiar with the loveable movie, Alice in Wonderland. But are we aware that there is an actual illness called the Alice in Wonderland Syndrome? This very real sickness causes quite a few people grief in their daily lives.
A lot of people are restless at night; they try various things such as sleep pills, different pillows, or even warm milk at night. When none of these are working properly, try turning to exercise to give you that sleep you desperately need.
The movies like to introduce all sorts of weird things that can supposedly happen after death, at least if you live in Zombieland, but realistically there are some weird things that the body does after death. Yes, I am talking about humans, not just the chicken that lives and runs around without a head, eventually choking on a piece of chicken feed. Here are a few things that you might not have known about the afterlife of your body.
While it’s common for many to blame hormones for obesity, leaving out the fact that most of these hormones improve with diet and exercise and are exacerbated by unhealthy lifestyle habits. However, a new study suggests that the brain of an obese patient actually craves higher calorie foods. 
The only thing that most of us think about when we think about our urine is how frequently we pee, how small a bladder we may have, and occasionally, we think of the fact that eating asparagus makes our pee smell bad. Health enthusiasts and athletes are sometimes aware of the fact that your pee gets lighter the more water you drink (i.e. if you are drinking enough water, your urine should be clear or close to). However, there are a few things that you need to now. What if your urine:
Many of us claim OCD, or we even laugh about it. Everybody has their tendencies to go a little overboard, but generally, OCD is in part defined as something that actually disrupts or defines one’s life, preventing a person from being fully functional at times.