By Michelle Fabio

Recent reports by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) have warned that some outbreaks of salmonella infections over the past fifteen years have been linked to raw tomatoes.

While the overall odds are low that you would contract salmonella infections from raw tomatoes, the CDC estimates that there may have been up to 79,000 such illnesses from twelve multi-state outbreaks since 1990.
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By Michelle Fabio

Scientists have come up with a way to infuse a full day’s worth of folate, a vitamin essential for healthy growth during early pregnancy, into a single tomato serving.

The tomato was developed at the University of Florida at Gainesville by Andrew Hanson and Jesse Gregory. “This could potentially be beneficial worldwide,” said Hanson. “Now that we’ve shown it works in tomatoes, we can work on applying it to cereals and crops for less developed countries where folate deficiencies are a very serious problem.”

In children, folate deficiencies have been linked to birth defects, slow growth rates and developmental problems, while in adults, low folate levels have been associated with anemia.
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By Michelle Fabio

In a study published in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry, researchers at Ohio State University found that orange “Tangerine” tomatoes contain lycopene that is more easily absorbed into the body than red tomatoes.

Why should we care?

Lycopene is a powerful nutritional antioxidant that reduces the amount of damage done to body cells by oxygen that could lead to cancers and heart disease.

Although red tomatoes have lycopene in higher concentrations, individuals in the study that were given spaghetti meals made with orange tomatoes absorbed up to two and a half times more lycopene into their bodies than those who had the red tomato pasta sauce.
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By Michelle Fabio

In Part I, you read about the health benefits of drinking tomato juice, and now you’re going to learn how to make it yourself—easy peasy, er, easy tomato-ey!

1. Blanch.
Bring a pot of water to boil and then put in a few tomatoes at a time. When the water comes back to a boil, let them in the water for about 10 seconds, remove with a slotted spoon, and put into a bowl of cold water.
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By Michelle Fabio

Maybe you’ve tried a certain bottled tomato juice and have been turned off for life—or maybe you just love that pre-prepared goodness.

Either way, you should be drinking tomato juice, which you can easily make at home, and here’s why:

Tomato juice has been the subject of a few recent studies, and all have concluded that drinking this squeezed fruit is beneficial for your health.
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By Amelia Tucker

One of the things that tie backyard gardeners together is the desire to eat the freshest and healthiest produce they can.

If you are buying your tomato from someone else, how do you know if it is organic?

• Buy locally
• Know your tomato’s history
• Check the sticker number

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