Wondering what to do with your excess tomatoes, or maybe you are just curious? You have come to the right article. After reading this article, you will get a better understanding of the benefits of the fruit, how to make a tomato smoothie and all the other ways you can enjoy tomatoes.
Tomato isn’t my favourite fruit. If I am honest, it’s not in my top 10 fruit list. I honestly haven’t met anyone who’s crazy about tomatoes either, so if you are, let me know in the comments.
Favourite or not, the tomato has a lot to offer. I mostly always just used tomatoes in stews and sauces, but there’s a lot more you can do with them, and lately, I have been experimenting and really enjoying each tomato experiment.
What’s The Deal With Tomatoes?
Were you surprised when I referred to tomatoes as fruit? I am not going to lie. I just learnt that too a few weeks ago. Even though tomatoes are traditionally used as vegetables or side dishes, they are actually fruits classified as berries. Other fruits in the berry family include “strawberries”, “blueberries”, and one that you probably didn’t think of “watermelons”.
Every time you consume your tomato smoothie, you get tons of health benefits from tomatoes especially due to the compound lycopene, which gives the tomato its bright red colour. These health benefits include
- Better heart health
- Cancer prevention
- Better vision
- Better digestive health
- Stronger immune system
When purchasing tomatoes, always go for organic or homegrown. Tomatoes naturally produce ethylene gas which helps them ripen. However, companies sometimes spray this gas on immature tomatoes to speed up this process. While this is not inherently bad, long term exposure to ethylene gas has been linked to cancer, so it is better to err on the side of caution.
There’s a bit of drawback with tomatoes. Research shows that excessive consumption of tomatoes can result in swelling and pain in the joints as they are packed with an alkaloid called solanine.
How To Make A Tomato Smoothie
There are so many variations of a tomato smoothie. Some are sweet and others spicy. Like all things, keep experimenting with different recipes until you find something you really love.
Other tomato smoothie recipes
How else can you spice up your tomato smoothie? I combed through the web and did some experiments on my own, and here are a few other tomato smoothie recipes for you.
- Spicy tomato smoothie: Tomatoes, flaxseed, date, ginger and pepper.
- Mango tomato smoothie: Mango, tomatoes, milk and chia seed
- Carrot tomato smoothie: Carrot, tomatoes, celery, lemon juice and ice cubes.
Tomato Benefits For Skin
Tomatoes offer a lot to the skin thanks to the presence of antioxidant lycopene, vitamin C, vitamin A, vitamin B2, potassium, folate and much more. Let’s go through some of the benefits of taking tomato smoothies for your skin.
Reduce sunburns
The lycopene in tomatoes has a photoprotective effect. This means that it can offer some protection to your skin from harsh sunlight.
There’s a 2006 study that shows that after 10- 12 weeks of consuming lycopene or tomato, people showed less sensitivity to UV radiation from the sun. However, tomatoes should never be a substitute for sunscreen.
Reduce wrinkles
Tomatoes have lots of Vitamin C, and vitamin C is known for boosting immunity and reducing the signs of ageing through improved collagen production.
Collagen prevents wrinkles and sagging skin and gives the skin a firm, plump and youthful look. Currently, there’s no research to confirm that applying tomatoes topically has the same effect, so consuming this tomato smoothie could be better.
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Boost moisture
If you have dry, dull, flaky skin, ingesting more tomatoes could do wonders for your skin. Like I mentioned earlier, tomatoes are a good source of potassium, and there is credible research that shows that consumption of potassium in adequate amounts could relieve dry skin.
However, just like boosting collagen, it might be better to consume your tomatoes to get this benefit.
Tomato Benefits For Hair
Who doesn’t want healthy, lustrous hair? There are tons of hair supplements floating around, but I would always advocate eating healthy over any supplement. A tomato smoothie is delicious, great for skin and can give make your hair healthier. Here’s is how it does it.
Prevent hair loss
There are a lot of causes of hair loss like postpartum shedding, traction alopecia and more, but if hair loss is due to vitamin deficiency, then eating more tomatoes can help to boost vitamin intake and therefore reduce hair loss
Revives dull hair
The vitamins in tomatoes also help to revive dull hair. When applied as a hair mask, tomatoes can add shine to dull damaged hair. To make it easy to rinse out, apply fresh tomato juice and whole tomatoes.
Better scalp health
Your scalp is the foundation for healthy hair growth. Tomatoes can nourish the scalp, prevent dandruff and possibly encourage hair growth. Once again, I advise you use tomato juice, so you don’t spend an hour trying to rinse out the pulp from your hair. That can be frustrating!
Types Of Tomato
There are so many types of tomatoes. Each one of them has a different taste and texture.
- Heirloom tomatoes: Like you probably guessed from the name, heirloom tomatoes are purebred and come from a single genetic line. They come in a variety of colors and are commonly eaten raw in salads or slightly cooked to make sauces.
- Beefsteak tomatoes: Once again it’s not hard to imagine why they got that name. Beefsteak tomatoes are meaty and fleshy. Full disclosure, I just had a beefsteak tomato I might sound partial to them. They are perfect in almost any dish and but really shine when it comes to sandwiches or as garnishing, this is because of their thickness which means that they will hold their shape after being sliced.
- Plum tomatoes: These have a cylindrical shape and have fewer seeds in them. For this reason they are perfect for making sauces, stews and tomato paste as they are easier to preserve.
- Cherry tomatoes: These are like the divas of the tomato family. They are small, sweet and come in different colors like red, yellow, green and even black. They can be eaten raw in salads, they are perfect for a tomato smoothie and can be used to make sauces.
There are more types of tomatoes, and you can find out more here.
Other Ways To Enjoy A Tomato
Don’t give up on tomatoes if you try out the tomato smoothie and it doesn’t suit your taste palette. Here are 6 other ways to eat tomatoes
- Make a tomato sauce
- Tomato soup for cold days
- Make tomato salsa
- Summer tomato candy
- Add them to your toast
- Make tomato chips
If you don’t like any of these recipes, do some more research to find other ways to take advantage of tomatoes’ benefits.
Which tomato smoothie recipe have you tried out? Let me know in the comments.
Till next time, stay clean inside and radiant outside.
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