What are cherry tomatoes? They are actually grape tomatoes.

Seeing the name "cherry tomato" for the first time, many people are probably a bit confused. What is it? But when they know its other name, "tom berry," most people will know. Isn't it just that small tomato? That's right, it's the small tomato we usually eat, and its other name is "pearl tomato."

Cherry tomatoes are also known as tomato berries, pearl tomatoes, pocket tomatoes, and mini tomatoes. They are a member of the tomato family. The fruit can be spherical, pear-shaped, or gooseberry-shaped, and its color can be red, yellow, or orange. Among these, red is the most commonly cultivated. Because it looks like a cherry from a distance, it gets its name, cherry tomato.

Tom Berry Coconut Muffins

Cherry tomato plants can grow up to 2 meters tall. They can be cultivated all year round in China. However, in the north, they only grow for one season a year, and the rest of the time they are grown in greenhouses. Compared to open-field cultivation, there is a significant difference in flavor. In the southern region, due to the suitable climate for cherry tomatoes, you can eat authentic open-field cultivated cherry tomatoes from July and August every year until February of the following year.

The cherry root system is well-developed with strong regeneration capacity, producing many lateral roots, most of which are distributed within the top 30 cm of the soil. The plants grow vigorously. There are few self-terminating varieties; most are indeterminate, with a plant height of over 2 meters. The leaves are odd-pinnate compound leaves with many small leaflets. Due to the small seeds, the first pair of cotyledons and a few true leaves are slightly smaller than those of a regular tomato.

Honeyed Tom Berries

Cherry tomatoes are an excellent health and nutritional food, especially suitable for the current trend of pursuing natural and healthy diets. Cherry tomatoes are exquisite and lovely in appearance, have a high sugar content of about 7-8 degrees, a sweet and fresh taste, and a unique flavor.

Cherry tomatoes are a fruit and vegetable for a healthy diet and are one of the best foods for children's nutrition and pregnant women. They can strengthen the spleen and stomach, quench thirst, and help prevent children from getting sick and alleviate discomforts such as gum bleeding. Every time you eat cherry tomatoes, you must wash them thoroughly. When buying, choose firmer ones; if the tomato berry itself is soft, it means it is not fresh, and we should not buy it.

Nutritional Value of Cherry Tomatoes

Cherry tomatoes are what we usually call tomato berries. They can be eaten as both a vegetable and a fruit, providing us with rich nutrition and health benefits. They are sweet, seedless, and have a good texture. They are rich in various nutrients needed by the human body and are one of the best food sources for children's nutrition and for pregnant women.

Tom Berries with Baby Potatoes

Cherry tomatoes can be used as both a fruit and a vegetable. Many nutrition studies have pointed out that the dry matter content of tomato berries is 7.7%, of which sugar accounts for 1.8-5%, acid 0.15%-0.75%, protein 0.7%-1.3%, vitamins 0.6%-1.4%, minerals 0.5-0.8%, pectin 1.3%-2.5%, and vitamin C 25-45 mg/100g. In addition, there are carotene, vitamins B1, B2, and tomato pigment. They can be eaten raw or cooked, but are more suitable for raw consumption.

Cherry tomatoes are sweet and sour, slightly cold in nature, and beneficial for constipation, excessive meat consumption, thirst and bad breath, stuffiness and heat in the chest and diaphragm, and sore throat. The large amount of vitamin C is a component needed by the body's connective tissue. It increases the strength and flexibility of the cartilage, blood vessel walls, ligaments, and the basal part of the bone.

Corn and Tomato Berry Salad

Cherry tomatoes contain special substances such as glutathione and lycopene. These substances can promote human growth and development, especially in children, and can increase the body's resistance and delay human aging. In addition, lycopene can protect the human body from carcinogenic toxins in cigarette smoke and car exhaust and can improve the body's sun protection function.

In recent years, American and German scientists have discovered that lycopene in tomato products not only prevents and fights cancer, especially prostate cancer, but can also treat prostate cancer. The vitamin PP content in cherry tomatoes ranks first among fruits and vegetables. The function of vitamin PP is to protect the skin, maintain the normal secretion of gastric juice, promote the formation of red blood cells, and has an auxiliary therapeutic effect on liver diseases. The malic acid or citric acid contained in cherry tomatoes helps the gastric juice to digest fat and protein.