Tomatoes, everywhere you look. However, in Shanghai in 2008, they seemed to become less "ordinary". In restaurants, tomato-related dishes filled the recommendation lists; all sorts of brands of tomato juice lined supermarket shelves and were hailed as "healthy drinks"; as the Spring Festival approached, lycopene also became a practical and decent choice when people selected gifts for respected elders and important clients.
This little tomato, suddenly so "famous", are you a bit puzzled? Actually, the tomato's rise to fame is not surprising. If you know how to eat tomatoes correctly and understand the mysterious power contained within them, you will have a sudden realization.
So, how should tomatoes be eaten?
Eating raw tomatoes is like eating nothing.
Many people are accustomed to eating tomatoes raw. In fact, eating them raw only allows you to absorb the vitamin C in the pulp, but you cannot obtain the more beneficial substance in tomatoes—lycopene. Only through heating can the cell walls of the tomato tissue break down, allowing a small amount of lycopene to be released.
The lycopene in tomatoes is one of the strongest natural antioxidants. Its antioxidant capacity is higher than that of vitamin E and also much stronger than that of vitamin C. *Time* magazine in the United States even ranked it as the number one health food of the 21st century. It is clear from this that eating tomatoes raw is truly a waste.