Cherry tomatoes are familiar to many beauty enthusiasts because they contain many nutrients that are good for human health. In addition, cherry tomatoes are also used to decorate dishes, creating many super attractive works of art.
Different from the taste of regular tomatoes, cherry tomatoes often have a sweet taste when eaten, conquering the hearts of many picky diners when enjoying any dish. Although they have a small appearance, inside cherry tomatoes contain enough nutrients that are good for health, especially containing very few calories, so they are loved by many clean eaters. The following article will help you learn more about the many health benefits of cherry tomatoes, let’s take a look.
The origin of cherry tomatoes and the difference from regular tomatoes
Cherry tomato seeds are considered the “ancestor” of regular tomatoes, and are also the only fruit found outside of South America. In the world of biology and botany, cherry tomatoes are also known as indeterminate varieties with characteristics such as:
- Cherry tomatoes are smaller than regular tomatoes and are round or elongated.
- Cherry tomatoes are easy to grow in many crops a year, easy to bear fruit and have a sweet, crunchy, juicy and more delicious taste than regular tomatoes.
- Cherry tomatoes have 3 times higher nutritional content than regular tomatoes.
- Cherry tomatoes are mainly used as a tasty food and are used more as a snack.
Cherry tomatoes are known as the “ancestor” of regular tomatoes with a sweet and crunchy taste.
The secret to a healthy and beautiful life with cherry tomatoes
Cherry tomatoes are listed in the group of foods containing a lot of vitamin C and minerals that help improve health. Although the actual nutrient content in cherry tomatoes still changes depending on the harvest time, the health benefits of cherry tomatoes cannot be denied, specifically:
Support stroke prevention
The lycopene compound in cherry tomatoes can prevent blood clotting problems, inflammation, etc., so it helps reduce the risk of stroke due to ischemia, due to blood clots forming and preventing blood flow to the brain.
Support prostate cancer prevention
Cherry tomatoes are a food source rich in substances that are considered to have cancer prevention effects such as vitamin C, melatonin, beta-carotene, lycopene, etc. Especially good for men’s health because it helps improve prostate health. Therefore, it is believed that eating a lot of tomatoes and tomato products can help reduce the risk of prostate cancer in particular and cancer in general.
Strengthen bone health
The Lycopene component in cherry tomatoes is considered a “shield” to protect bones, especially for women in the premenopausal and menopausal stages who are at high risk of osteoporosis. Many studies have shown that regular supplementation of lycopene from tomatoes helps significantly reduce the risk of osteoporosis.
Lycopene in cherry tomatoes helps prevent many bone and joint diseases.
Good for the heart and people with high blood pressure
According to an average assessment, about 10 cherry tomatoes will have the same amount of potassium as a banana, helping to reduce blood pressure and increase the body’s excretion process when balancing fluids and reducing pressure on your arteries.
In addition, cherry tomatoes also help prevent cardiovascular diseases and related symptoms such as arrhythmia.
Effective weight loss support
Cherry tomatoes have very low calories, on average in 100 grams there are only 20-30 calories, at the same time very low in saturated fat, cholesterol and sodium, moreover cherry tomatoes also have high fiber and water content, so cherry tomatoes are extremely suitable for those following the eat clean diet.
Rich source of vitamins and minerals
Cherry tomatoes are compared to a “miniature nutritional treasure” because they are one of the ingredients with the highest nutritional content today such as vitamins A, C, E, K and minerals such as phosphorus, B6, folate, potassium, copper, … good for human health.
Stimulates collagen production for the skin
The excellent source of vitamin C in cherry tomatoes, in addition to strengthening the body’s immunity, is also a way to increase skin elasticity that many beauty enthusiasts apply by stimulating collagen production and helping the skin become firmer.
Each cherry tomato is a natural vitamin C pill that helps improve skin elasticity.
Prevent hair loss and protect the skin
In addition to vitamin C, cherry tomatoes also have the ability to act as antioxidants, so they are also widely used in the process of skin care and hair loss prevention.
In addition, the Lycopene component in cherry tomatoes protects the skin from the effects of UV rays, especially those with oily skin can apply cherry tomatoes on the face to prevent acne and pimples.
Remove dead skin cells quickly
Many opinions say that the amount of enzymes in tomatoes can combine with sugar to form a tomato exfoliating mixture, but should not be applied on the face to avoid sugar crystals creating many wounds because the skin on the face is thinner than the rest of the area.
Anti-aging ability
Cherry tomatoes have anti-aging ability thanks to containing a lot of vitamin B, helping to limit the appearance of age spots and wrinkles on the face. Along with that, vitamin B in cherry tomatoes also helps reduce hyperpigmentation and the effects of sunlight.
Speed up the wound healing process
Adding cherry tomatoes to your daily meals can help you prevent free radicals from damaging your skin, thanks to antioxidants such as lycopene and vitamin C.
You can protect your skin from signs of aging and wrinkles by applying a tomato mask every day.
The process of caring for and harvesting cherry tomatoes
With the great benefits of cherry tomatoes, many readers also want to grow and harvest cherry tomatoes at home, but do not know how to care for them effectively. Here are some steps you can refer to.
Watering
When you first plant a tree, water it regularly in the early morning and afternoon so that the tree can grow strong and maintain soil moisture. However, be careful not to let the soil become waterlogged, you can water it with rice water or diluted bean dregs water every week.
Note that watering from the stem down, do not wet the leaves, especially in the evening, as this will create conditions for many bacteria to invade and cause disease.
Cherry tomato care process from watering stage
Fertilizing
When the cherry tomato plant is less than 1 month old, you need to take care and fertilize carefully for the plant to grow. You can apply tribat fertilizer mixed with phosphorus, nitrogen, and urea to increase nutrients for the plant to grow and bloom.
Pest control
Growing plants cannot avoid the appearance of pests and diseases that destroy the plant. To limit this situation, you can use straw, rice husks, or nylon to cover the plant. When detecting that the tomato plant is infected with pests or fungi, you should prune it and spray the tomato plant with insecticides and fungicides in time.
Make a trellis
When the tomato plant is 1-2 months old, you can make a trellis or insert stakes made of wood, water pipes, or iron to support the plant stem from breaking or falling.
Topping and pruning branches, pruning old leaves
Topping and pruning branches to concentrate nutrients to nourish the fruit, at the same time help the tree to be airy and each tree only leaves 1 main stem and 2 first-level branches close to the first flower cluster, then let the tree grow many branches to produce many flowers, many crops.
Caring for cherry tomatoes when fruiting
Cherry tomatoes usually flower when the tree is 2 months old, but if the temperature is below 10 degrees Celsius and above 30 degrees Celsius, the tree will have difficulty flowering, leading to the inability to pollinate and bear fruit.
If the weather is above 30 degrees Celsius, you can use a layer of straw or hay to line the surface of the pot to keep the soil moist, the suitable temperature is from 21 – 25 degrees Celsius. In addition, to speed up the pollination process for flowers, you can gently shake the trellis in the morning 1 – 2 times/week to stimulate yield compared to self-pollination.
The suitable temperature for cherry tomato plants to bear fruit is around 10-30 degrees Celsius.
Harvesting
You can harvest cherry tomatoes when the fruit is red and dark red, you should not harvest when the fruit is green because at this time the fruit contains ingredients that can easily cause poisoning.
Hopefully through the above article, everyone will understand the health benefits that cherry tomatoes bring, but should not abuse because eating too much cherry tomatoes will cause acid reflux and digestive problems caused by malic acid. Therefore, we need to use it at a reasonable frequency every day to not harm our health.