The Tomato - friendly fruit or fearsome fiend? - the REAL facts!
tomato
Encyclopedia Britannica Article
any fruit of the numerous cultivated varieties of Lycopersicon esculentum, a plant of the nightshade family (Solanaceae); also, the fruit of L. pimpinelli folium, the tiny currant tomato. Tomato plants are generally much branched, spreading 60-180 cm (24-72 inches) and recumbent when fruiting, but a few forms are compact and upright. Leaves are more or less hairy, strongly odorous.
tomatoes are evil
T.A.E.com Article

 Any fruit (or vegetable to the ignorant) of the numerous cultivated varieties of tomato, a plant of the nightshade family - the highly poisonous deadly nightshade is a relative.
Tomato plants are found every damn where, from patios to palaces and produce a fruit. Red is the colour of a tomato but also the shade most associated with blood and death - coincidence? Tomatoes are a vital ingredient to many basic foods - it should only ever be consumed when processed i.e. Ketchup, soup, puree etc. In their pure form inclusion in a sandwich a tomato slice will ruin the bread and filling. Even removing all pieces (including those pips) of the red horror will render all snacks unpalatable..
tomatoes are poisonous!*                                 (*well a little bit)
The tomato is closely related to the botanical genus Solanum, to which belong many poisonous species.
One of the better known of these is belladonna, or deadly nightshade, a plant similar in appearance to the tomato and containing the substance atropine.
Unripe tomatoes do contain poisonous alkaloids that disappear (so we are told) as the fruit matures.
For a long time tomatoes were not eaten by Europeans but grown as ornamental plants and considered
fit only for wild animals;
hence the scientific name of Lycopersicon or "wolf peach" given them by the 18th-century English botanist John Hill.

The tomato, as a member of the Nightshade family, contains a bitter poisonous alkaloid called "Solanine".
Solanine is toxic to humans, but it requires a concentrated amount to induce sickness.
But for a cat, on the other side, traces of Solanin, like those found in just a 100g of cherry tomatoes, can be fatal!

Scientific and Common Names:
Solanum spp Nightshades, Jerusalem cherry, Horse nettle, Buffalo bur. All Fruits small; yellow, red, or black when ripe; like tomatoes; Glycoalkaloid solanine (leaves, shoots, unripe berries).

Symptoms:Acute hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, weakness, excess salivation, dyspnea (rapid breathing), trembling, progressive paralysis, prostration, death.

tomatoes and health: the truth

Tomatoes Are Evil .com Article

Many advocates of the tomato will tell you of it's health giving properties:

> tomatoes can reduce the risk of prostate cancer
> tomatoes contain lycopene
> tomatoes are good for the eyes
> lycopene helps women guard against cervical intra-epithelial neoplasia
> lycopene is an inhibitor to heart disease

THE TRUTH however is this:
The best food sources of lycopene (the good stuff) according to
the Tomato Research Council are:
Tomato Sauce, Spaghetti Sauce, Ketchup; Tomato Soup, Tomato Juice, Vegetable Juice, Minestrone Soup, Vegetable Soup and Pink Grapefruit.
NOTE: the Tomato does NOT appear on this list raw, sliced or otherwise. the health giving benefits of the accursed fruit are only revealed when all resemblance to the evil fruit has been eliminated.
Where would we be without ketchup?
Do NOT allow this abomination into your food, your fridges or your lives.
How much more proof do you need?


evil


HEALTH FACT FILE:

All green parts of the plant are poisonous. A spray made from Tomato leaves is an effective but very poisonous insecticide.

Previously reported allergic manifestations to tomato include urticaria/angioedema, dermatitis, perioral dermatitis, Oral Allergy Syndrome, rhinitis, and abdominal pain. Tomato pollen may trigger rhinitis and/or conjunctivitis.

Tomato juice can cause reflux esophagitis (heartburn).

Greenhouse Tomato growers may suffer Occupational asthma due to Red Spider Mites on the plants or an outbreak of the fungus Verticillium albo-atrum in the crop.

Children have been severely poisoned from making a tea from the leaves, and livestock have died from eating the foliage and vines.

The first ketchup recipe was printed in 1727 in Elizabeth Smith's The Compleat Housewife, and called for anchovies, shallots, vinegar, white wine, sweet spices (cloves, ginger, mace, nutmeg), pepper, and lemon peel. Eighty-five years later the first tomato ketchup recipe was published in Nova Scotia by American ex-pat James Mease, which he often refers to as 'love apple' ketchup-he attempts to give it more cachet by stating that this variation is influenced by French cooking, although there is no proof of it.

(see tomato history facts)

tomatoesareevil.com is a web site dedicated to the %
of the Earth's population who
DON'T LIKE TOMATOES.