I read today in Diabetes Self-Management that not only are tomatoes packed with vitamins A and C, they are chock full of lycopene, which gives them their luscious red color. Recent studies suggest that diets rich in lycopene may have a lower risk for cancers, heart disease, macular degeneration (an increasing problem for us Boomers), and general inflamation. Here's the other good news--while cooking tomatoes tends to decrease the vitamin C, cooked tomatoes or tomatoes eaten with a little fat, like salad dressing or olive oil, actually let the body absorb more of the lycoprene. That is hard to beat--fresh, cooked or drenched, they are healthful! So, I say, a tomato a day. Or at least Heinz ketchup. Note: Nothing was specifically said in the article about fried green tomatoes.
Another tidbit I wanted to pass on, which you probably know, is that tomatoes originated in Peru, before spreading all over the cooking world. This amazing fruit? vegetable? was named tomati by the Aztecs, "something round and plump." I believe the word tomato today is slang around the world for "something round and plump."
Here is the kicker: the source of the confusion about whether tomatoes are a fruit or a vegetable. According to science they are a fruit, containing seeds, but in 1893 in a decision on how tomatoes should be taxed, as a fruit or at the higher rate of vegetable, the Supreme Court ruled, surprisingly (?) that tomatoes were vegetables. So there you have it, you can quit lying awake at night fretting about it.