Tomato is a radically distinctive variety of vegetables. It can both be fruit and vegetable. Although the occidental people are used to use tomatoes, tomato ketchup and tomato sauce to do cooking, but most Chinese people like to eat tomatoes in cold with sauce or in raw. Especially the deep red Cherry tomatoes and the orange red tiny tomatoes on the market are eaten in raw as fruits commonly.

    Then there is many arguments result from, it’s in vain to eating cooked tomatoes due to wasting the vitamin C in it; It’s in vain to eating uncooked tomatoes due to the lycopene can not be absorbed. And then, consumers are between a rock and a hard place to choose how to eat tomatoes. We may have a look at the search outcome abroad as well.

    Searchers of the IOWA University of the United States found a group of post graduate students to be the subjects, let them have a bowl of vegetable salad with tomatoes but used different salad flavoring in each other. Searchers put a tiny plastic tube to join the vein which was used for collect blood example timed to detect when before or after eating.

    Students felt nothing different of eating which salad, they tasted close. But, in fact, the ingredients of the salad is so different, some are normal with 80% fat, some are fatless salad, some are just used fat substitute without more, the absorbable fat is nil.

    But the detect outcomes have great difference. The useful ingredients like lycopene, carotene and lutein will absolutely rise up when eating traditional salad, eating the fatless and the fat substitute are both in bad effect. So, searcher indicated, although is up to date when eating uncooked vegetables, but is also good to have a bit of oil when eating dark color vegetables.

    Nevertheless there is not without any way to make up this pity. Searcher indicated that the absorptivity of carotenoid would be rose up by chewing fully and chewing more well, also cut or grind into powder because the carotenoid is easy to release out as long as the cell is destroyed. On this meaning, in spite of beating carrot into pulpy will lose vitamin C seriously but is good for the absorptivity of the carotene in it.

    A study article which is issued in the Food Scientific Magazine by the Spanish scientist is very particular. They had detected 6 cooking ways in 20 varieties of vegetables and compared the losing level of the anti-oxidation. What made people surprised is, the anti-oxidation effect of carrot rose up on the contrary after cooking. Pease, garlic and sugar beet all lost so less however they had been cooked. The result found, the best cooking way to keep the anti-oxidation is microwave, and cooking boil to a mush and high pressure will lose large part. This is not because of the high temperature but cooked too over, the most anti-oxidation dissolved into water resulted in the vegetables only have less anti-oxidation. Lots of people put the water away after cooked vegetables, this is also threw away the nutrition and anti-oxidation. And if you eat them with the water, then the loss becomes so less.

    This is a great information. Compare with the abroad cooking method which is cooked in raw or cooked into pieces, our boiled mixing, stir fried or stewed with soup didn’t lose too many anti-oxidation of vegetables.

    People should not be bound up with what is the best way to eat. My personal opinion is without too much oil, without too high temperature, just the way you like, and is the way you like most, then is the best way of cooking. Because even there is losing some part and even the absorptivity is not as you wish, just eat more and you can take them back. And we will get more nutrition which didn’t lose like potassium or fiber. The cooking ways which made people hard to eat still made people have too less in spite of the nutrition seems without any loss.

    So, don’t be anxious if you want to eat tomatoes in raw as fruits or beat them into juice. The key is will it cause stomach cold or diarrhea. If without this problem, then just eat as your favorite way.