Is a tomato a berry or is it a vegetable?

As the majority of reference books says, tomato is a plant of the Solanaceae family. In Latin, the name of the culture sounds - Solánum lycopérsicum. Tomato is grown as a vegetable crop, and its fruits are often called tomatoes. The type of fruit is a berry. Does this mean that a tomato is a berry?

To date, thanks to the fact that tomato has valuable nutritional and dietary properties, variety of varieties, and high responsiveness to proper care during cultivation, it is one of the most popular crops on the whole planet. Tomatoes grow on the open ground, they are well fruited and under the film, in glass and film greenhouses. Often you can see this plant on balconies and loggias, and sometimes on the windowsills in the rooms.

Using this culture, we almost never think, a tomato - a berry or a vegetable? And this question was even the reason for the trial. So, in the distant 1893, the United States Supreme Court issued a verdict, according to which a tomato was considered a vegetable. Perhaps the reason for such a decision was in the economic plane. After all, imports of vegetables, unlike fruits, were subject to customs duties. But, whatever it was, the decision was made on the basis that the tomato is usually eaten on the second for meat or fish.

That is, this culture is not a dessert, which distinguishes it from fruit.

But the allegations that the tomato is a berry, did not stop. And they found their confirmation at an official level relatively recently - in 2001.

Then the EU authorities ordered the tomato to be considered a fruit.

But ordinary people, as in European countries, and with us, still in their majority consider a tomato a vegetable.

However, on whether a tomato is a berry, or a vegetable, its properties do not become less useful. Lycopene - a unique natural substance, which in large quantities contain tomatoes, has simply miraculous properties. Thanks to this substance, the consumption of tomatoes in food helps to reduce the concentration of cholesterol in the blood and lower blood pressure. Lycopene in large quantities also actively fights against obesity and the formation of blood clots.

It is very useful to eat tomatoes for middle-aged men. After all, if there is not enough lycopene in their body, the risk of suffering a heart attack or stroke increases three-fold. An antitumor effect, an obstacle to the division of cancer cells, which prevents the development of oncology, is also attributed to tomatoes. Tomato berry, by the way, is one of the few plant cultures that do not lose their useful properties when exposed to high temperatures. Moreover, the amount of lycopene in tomatoes during their cooking or frying increases by one and a half times. According to scientists from the Cancer Center in Memphis, if every day to eat fresh or cooked tomatoes, you can significantly reduce the risk of skin cancer (melanoma) and the prostate and get rid of certain cardiovascular diseases.

But still, a tomato is a berry? Never mind. The main thing is that a tomato is tasty and useful.