Cooking For Engineers

sfwreng · Guest

Hello all,

How much sugar is there in a green tomato versus a run of the mill red tomato?

fwendy · Joined: 12 Aug 2005 Posts: 19 Location: UK

Surprisingly hard to find an answer to this! It seems that green tomatoes probably have a slightly lower sugar content than ripe ones, but as the total carbohydrate content of a tomato is less than 5% by weight, it's not a significant difference unless you are eating huge amounts.

Michael Chu · Joined: 10 May 2005 Posts: 1654 Location: Austin, TX (USA)

According to the USDA Nutrient Database, for every 100 g of tomatoes (a little bigger than the average small tomato), there are 4 g of sugar in a green tomato and 2.6 g of sugar in a red tomato (year-round average).

Not much difference... If you eat 6 large tomatoes (about 1 kg) of green, you're only consuming 14 g of extra sugar (assuming average crops). Not much additional sugar, but way to many tomatoes at one time. Smile

fwendy · Joined: 12 Aug 2005 Posts: 19 Location: UK

I wonder why I didn't come across that site in my search? Probably depends on the exact words used in the search engine.

OK, why would the sugar content go down as the tomato ripens (and becomes sweeter tasting)? Could it be that the sugar level is fixed early in the growing stage, but as the tomato ripens it continues to take in water, so that although the sugar content appears less, as a percentage of the dry matter in the tomato, it is the same as a green tomato? Or does ripening remove whatever it is that makes green tomatoes much less sweet? Or are your green tomatoes a completely different variety of tomatoes which never grow to maturity and ripen?

DuxIl · Posted: Fri Sep 23, 2005 12:32 pm Post subject:

Search engines:

Most of them, such as google, use but a few underlying search engines themselves. I have, over the years, found the most accurate tool of all to be a multiple-search engine. People will now blurt out "Dogpile," but, no... Dogpile is just a slightly more beefy Google.

I use something called Copernic, which always produces the best results in a mere few seconds. It's free, too... I find it indispensible in research.

Learn more here (and no, I don't and never have worked for these folks)... http://www.copernic.com/en/products/agent/index.html