The nutritional value of tomatoes. Is it better to eat tomatoes raw or cooked?

1. Nutritional value of tomatoes

Tomatoes are rich in nutritional and health ingredients such as vitamin A, carotene, lycopene and lutein, which are very effective in preventing and treating night blindness, cataracts, protecting the eyes and improving vision.

Tomatoes contain a certain amount of chromium, which can control blood sugar, and their sugar content is not high. Therefore, diabetic patients often eat tomatoes to control blood sugar levels in the body.

Tomatoes are rich in lycopene, a substance that helps to resist oxidation and remove harmful free radicals in the human body. It can inhibit cancers such as gastric cancer, esophageal cancer and ovarian cancer. Eating tomatoes regularly can help fight and prevent cancer.

Tomatoes are also rich in calcium and vitamin K. Eating them can supplement the calcium needed by the human body and play a role in bone health.

Tomatoes also contain anti-inflammatory ingredients such as bioflavonoids, which can help relieve pain caused by inflammation.

2. Is it better to eat tomatoes raw or cooked?

Tomatoes are rich in minerals, dietary fiber, vitamin C, lycopene and carotene. Whether eaten raw or cooked, they have their own benefits, which mainly depends on the individual nutritional needs and taste requirements of the eater.

If you want to supplement minerals, it doesn't matter whether you eat it raw or cooked, because the mineral elements contained in it will not deteriorate due to heating; if you want to supplement dietary fiber and promote gastrointestinal motility, you don't have to consider whether it is raw or cooked, because dietary fiber is a type of carbohydrate and is not affected by heating; if you want to supplement vitamin C, it is best to choose to eat tomatoes raw, because vitamin C is easily oxidized and denatured due to heating, and heating it before eating will be detrimental to the absorption of vitamin C; and if you want to supplement carotene and lycopene, try to choose to eat them cooked, because both are fat-soluble and can be better absorbed by the human body after heating.

Therefore, everyone can decide whether to eat it raw or cooked based on their nutritional needs and taste preferences.