Tomato Juice
Species Name: Solanum lycopersicum
Also Known As: Varieties are known by their specific names ie: plum tomato, cherry tomato, beefsteak tomato, etc.
Often mistaken for a vegetable, the tomato is a savory, typically red, edible fruit. There are also green, yellow, and orange varieties of tomato. The plant bearing the same name originated in South America, and is a member of the nightshade family.
What is Tomato Juice? Tomato juice is a juice made from the fruit of the tomato plant.
Fresh Tomato Juice Recipe:
- 5 lbs ripe red tomatoes – washed, cored, and quartered
- 1 red onion – small, halved
- 1 celery stalk with leaves
- Use an enamel, glass, or stainless steel pot so the pot won’t react to the tomatoes’ acidity. Place the tomatoes in the pot along with other ingredients for flavor if desired. The onion and celery are optional. Cover and cook for about 30 minutes over medium heat until tomatoes are soft. Stir often.
- Discard onion and celery. Use a food mill or press the tomatoes through a fine sieve to extract the juice. Discard the solids. Measure the remaining juice. Rinse the pot and return juice to the pot.
- At this point you can add 1 teaspoon of sugar and up to 1 teaspoon of salt for each 4 cups of tomato juice. Add pepper to taste. Bring the tomato juice to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 5 minutes. Cool, and then chill. At this point you can re-filter with cheesecloth to remove any thick areas or seeds that might have passed through the first processing.
- Fresh juice may be refrigerated for up to three days.
Home Remedies Using Tomato Juice:
Benefits of Tomato Juice:
Historically, tomato juice is believed to have been first served as a beverage in 1917 by an Indiana hotelier that ran out of orange juice. His concoction of squeezed tomatoes, sugar and a special sauce became known widely known as a tomato juice cocktail.
Today we know that Tomato juice is a source of many vitamins and minerals including vitamin A and C. One cup of tomato juice offers up to 74 percent of the daily recommended value of vitamin C, and 2 percent of vitamin A. Health benefits to these vitamins include assisting the body’s immune system destroy the free radicals in your blood stream that damage cells. Other nutrients found in tomato juice include K, B1, B2, B3, B5, B6, potassium, magnesium, iron and phosphorous.
Tomato juice also contains the antioxidant lycopene, which has been noted in scientific studies as a possible protection against prostate cancer, breast cancer, atherosclerosis, and coronary artery disease. It is also believed that lycopene may protect against myocardial infarction or a heart attack.
Tomato Juice may also prove beneficial to:
- Reduce the amount of sugar in the urine
- As an effective weight-loss food
- Reinforce joint health
- Remove toxins from the body, including with the nervous and respiratory systems
- Help break down LDL or bad cholesterol
- Treat high cholesterol
- Treat heart disease
Used topically, applying tomato juice to the skin provides a treatment for burns, against acne, and also to promote a good complexion.
Research on Tomato Juice includes one study that discovered that in mice a: “50 percent tomato juice drink ‘completely prevented’ smoke-induced emphysema.” The testing was done by, “Feeding tomato juice to mice kept them from developing emphysema after cigarette smoke exposure that was long enough to induce emphysema in a control group.”
Side Effects of Tomato Juice:
Unless you are allergic to tomatoes, Tomato Juice has been found to have few side effects. Tomato Juice may cause heartburn.
