Research has found that raw tomatoes are able to retain more vitamin-like nutrients and, at the same time, have a sweet and sour taste, which makes them suitable for people who are thirsty, have a poor appetite, as well as those who suffer from night blindness and nearsightedness.

But, green tomatoes should not be eaten, this is because: the ultraviolet spectrophotometric determination, unripe green tomatoes contain lycopene, is a similar alkaloid glycosides similar to the anemone, the human body has a hemolytic effect. Eat green tomatoes, will feel the mouth bitter, ten minutes to several hours after eating, can make people poisoned. Symptoms include dry mouth, tongue numbness, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, and in severe cases, fever, shortness of breath, dizziness, tinnitus, photophobia, convulsions and so on.

Some people say, then put the green tomatoes for a long time, can also turn red, is not it can eat raw? The answer is also negative, this is because, after a long time to place the green tomatoes back to red, tomato alkali is reduced or even disappeared, but tomatoes after a long time to place, the epidermis of the pesticide penetration into the fruit, while the fruit of nitrite content has increased greatly, eaten raw there will be varying degrees of hypoxia symptoms, such as lips and fingernails and even the whole body skin bruising, shortness of breath, nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, the heaviest can appear Coma and convulsions, or even death. Therefore, even after a long time to place red tomatoes, should not be eaten raw.

But not all green tomatoes can not be eaten raw, some hybrid green cherry tomatoes, the fruit is still green when ripe, can be eaten raw. For example, the Beijing Municipal Academy of Agricultural and Forestry Sciences selected and bred green cherry tomato varieties such as Emerald 1.