Despite Outbreak, Don’t Shut Them Out of Diet

The recent salmonella outbreak in tomatoes conjures up memories of the E-Coli outbreak in the spinach crop in 2006. While to this point investigators don’t know the source of the outbreak that’s sickened nearly 900 across the country, the spinach episode devastated the leafy green industry, causing approximately 200 illnesses in 26 different states. Comparatively speaking, the spinach episode was minor compared to this year’s tomato fiasco that’s sickened at least one person in 37 different states and has cost the tomato industry approximately $100 million in decreased sales.

As one might imagine, whenever this outbreak is declared officially over, it might take a while for consumers to begin buying tomatoes again. After all, in early 2007, five months after the outbreak had been declared over, sales of bagged spinach dropped 27 percent compared to the same time frame in 2006.

Though I’ll understand people’s hesitancy to buy tomatoes once the ban is lifted, I feel it incumbent upon me to remind people why they’re an important part of our diet.

First off, remember that not all tomatoes are unsafe to consume. Grape, cherry and vine-attached tomatoes have all been declared free of salmonella. Preferably, go with the organic (Though there’ s no evidence to support this as of yet, if more people grew organically, this outbreak might very well have been avoided)

Secondly, once the ban is lifted on all tomatoes, there’s more to tomatoes than their delicious taste. Remember, lycopene is perhaps one of the most beneficial nutrients found in foods. Through an array of studies going back to 1999, lycopene has been shown to be the most effective nutrient in preventing prostate cancer in men, is one of the most powerful nutrients that act as growth inhibitors to breast and lung cancers and has been deemed an effective deterrent in warding off the number one killer in America today: heart disease. And where is lycopene most abundantly found? Tomatoes, of course.

And tomato consumption doesn’t have to be constricted to tomatoes themselves, tomato sauce or low sodium tomato soups. One of America’s favorite condiments – ketchup – is loaded with lycopene. But we’re not talking the Heinz Ketchup your mom used to buy (Today, Heinz offers organic ketchup varieties). Organic ketchup brands – like Annie’s Organic Ketchup – contain three times as much lycopene as standard ketchup varieties, according to research published in the journal Agricultural and Food Chemistry.

Of course, the vitamin content of tomatoes is nothing to sneeze at either. We tend to associate vitamin C with oranges and strawberries. But tomatoes are LOADED with vitamin C as well. Just a cup of chopped tomatoes contains nearly 60 percent of your daily requirement.

Now, for the record, I’m not some tomato lobbyist and I don’t get paid by Tomato Growers of America (if there is such an organization). But as a natural health writer, I shutter when people shun tomatoes out of some irrational fear that they’ll become sick despite the ban being limited to specific varieties (you remember what happened with spinach). Reacquaint yourself with tomatoes and make them a part of your every day diet.