In the late 1700s or early 1800s, rumors spread that tomatoes were poisonous. Of course, tomatoes were harmless, but in those days kitchens used utensils made of lead – an extremely dangerous material. The acid in tomatoes absorbed poisons, people became seriously ill, and even died, so they came to the conclusion that it was tomatoes that possessed poisonous properties. So they began to stay away from tomatoes, terrified of them, like vampires of garlic. It is not surprising that the insurgents once decided to use the poisonous properties of tomatoes to kill American President George Washington.
Once upon a time, Sir Washington caught a cold that seriously impaired his sense of taste (no, it was hardly covid). The chef, bribed by the enemies of the nation, took advantage of the moment by putting tomatoes in the stew and reported to the “upstairs” that the president had received enough poison to die in the near future. George Washington, of course, successfully survived the “assassination”. But the thief himself is not. The mutineer decided that either God or the devil was on the side of the president, so the next morning the chef shortened his life.
The myth about the danger of tomatoes lived for a very long time. In 1774, a manual on gardening was published in Denmark, which stated: “Tomatoes are extremely harmful, because they drive those who eat them crazy.” Many later called tomatoes “wolf peaches.”
In 1822, Colonel Robert Gibbon Johnson, a gardener, judge and statesman, publicly ate a bucket of tomatoes right on the courthouse steps in Salem, New Jersey. The thousands of people who gathered for the performance were surprised to discover that the retired military man did not want to die in terrible agony and convulsions – and since then the tomato has rapidly become popular.
Just so you understand, almost everything mentioned above is by no means true. These are only the fictions and legends of the American continent, which the Americans themselves still rely on. And we just wanted to remind you that tomatoes, among other useful substances, contain serotonin, called the hormone of happiness, and thiamin, a vitamin that turns into serotonin during metabolic processes in the human body. Therefore, tomatoes calm the nervous system, which is extremely important for us Ukrainians!
So drink tomato juices, eat sour tomatoes, cook borscht, stew and soups with tomato dressings – heat treatment only improves the beneficial properties of tomatoes! The amount of lycopene in them increases by a third after 2 minutes of cooking, so tomatoes are best absorbed precisely in soups and sauces
Let’s be healthy and keep calm.
Namaste!
