Give me red...

The tomato is the hottest food item right now, with its promise of good health.

There is this tendency these days to look to food as the panacea for all that ails the human race. Want to ensure that you are never struck down by cancer? Eat this or that and you cut your chance of getting cancer by such and such percentage... on and on goes this tedious food-related advice.

But the truth is that there are some foods that are full of the promise of good health and vitality. Tomatoes have a whole host of goodness in them, so consuming them in large quantities makes a lot of sense.

Tomatoes contain large amounts of vitamin C, providing 40 per cent of the body's daily required value. They also contain 15 per cent daily value of vitamin A, 8 per cent daily value of potassium, and 7 per cent of the recommended dietary allowance of iron for women and 10 per cent for men.

And that's not all. Tomatoes have lycopene, which is known as the most powerful antioxidant. Consuming lycopene is said to be good for controlling high blood pressure. Overall, tomatoes are known to be good for the heart.

There is also some research which claims that eating an adequate quantity of tomatoes can keep prostate cancer at bay. The other cancers that tomatoes are said to keep at bay are endometrial, breast, colorectal and lung cancers. Tomatoes can also help keep blood sugar levels stable, if eaten regularly.

Anecdotally, it seems that right now tomatoes are the hottest food item that is being researched and consumed in the United States, given all that is already widely known about their various health-giving properties.

It has also been found that tomatoes, unlike many vegetables, do not lose their high nutritional value when they are cooked.

Therefore, even if they are eaten as a sauce, as soup, or even as part of a dish, their goodness isn't diminshed. Given their tangy flavour, tomatoes are great on their own.

After all that has been listed here, there can be little excuse for not making tomatoes part of your daily diet. A bit of red and a lifetime of good health is a good bargain.