Where Tomatoes Came From
Long before any European had crossed the Atlantic, wild tomato plants were cultivated by the indigenous peoples of the Andes Mountains of western South America. Over time, carried the plant north through Central America and into Mexico.
By the time the Aztecs encountered the tomato, it had changed quite a bit from its wild ancestor. The Aztecs are credited with growing, naming, and eating the tomato in the form closest to what we’d recognize today. They called it “tomatl,” a word in the Nahuatl language. It’s this word that eventually gave us “tomato” in English.
When Spanish conquistadors arrived in the early 1500s, they found the tomato growing in the gardens of the Aztec ruler Montezuma the Second. The explorer Hernán Cortés is said to have taken tomato seeds back to Spain, and from there, the plant began its journey across Europe.
A Suspicious Welcome in Europe
The tomato spent its first two centuries in Europe treated mostly as a curiosity, or worse, as a threat. Part of the problem was color. Red was associated with danger, sin, and the supernatural, so a bright red fruit made people uneasy from the start. But the bigger problem was the plant family the tomato belonged to.
In 1544, an Italian herbalist named Pietro Andrea Mattioli classified the tomato as a kind of mandrake, a category of plant believed to work as an aphrodisiac. This is where the tomato picked up the nickname “love apple.” In France, it became “pomme d’amour,” and people whispered about its supposed romantic effects, though there was never any real evidence behind the claim.
In 1597, the English botanist and herbalist John Gerard wrote about the tomato in his book “Herbal’’. He described the plant’s smell as “rank and stinking” and called the fruit “corrupt.” Gerard’s harsh words had a lasting impact. His writing helped seal the tomato’s bad reputation in Great Britain, and that suspicion carried over to the American colonies as well.
Truth Behind the “Poison Apple”
Wealthy Europeans at the time often ate off pewter plates, and antique pewter contained lead. Tomatoes are naturally acidic, and when an acidic food sits on a pewter plate, it can pull lead out of the metal and into the food. People who dined on pewter, and who happened to be eating tomatoes, were absorbing lead with every bite. Some of them got sick and some died. Nobody suspected the plates and the fruit got the blame instead.
TOMATO IN SUPERSTITIONS AND FOLKLORE
The tomato’s arrival in England lined up with a period of intense fear over witchcraft, particularly during the reign of King James the First. In a climate where people were suspicious of unfamiliar plants and unfamiliar remedies, a strange new fruit from a foreign land was an easy target.
The tomato’s connection to poisonous nightshades didn’t help matters. And then there was the scientific name itself. In 1753, the botanist Carl Linnaeus classified the tomato as Solanum lycopersicum, which translates roughly to “wolf peach nightshade.” The word “lycopersicum” sounds a lot like “lycanthrope,” the term for a werewolf. For people already primed to be suspicious, that similarity didn’t do the tomato any favors.
The Tomato Conquers Italy
Tomato seeds traveled from Mexico to Spain with early explorers, and from there to Italy by the mid-1500s. The first recorded mention of the tomato by name in Italy comes from Tuscany in 1548, where it was called “pomi d’oro,” or golden apple — a name that survives today as “il pomodoro,” and hints that many early tomatoes were yellow rather than red. At first, Italians grew them mostly as ornamental curiosities, like the rest of Europe. But the warm climate of southern Italy suited the plant well, and it slowly made its way into the kitchen, appearing in a Naples cookbook by 1692.
The real turning point came in the late 1700s, when peasants in Naples began putting tomatoes on top of flatbread, an early ancestor of pizza. Pizza’s most famous moment came in 1889. Italy had only just become a unified nation, and the King and Queen traveled to Naples to win over a population still unhappy about losing its independence. Queen Margherita, tired of the French-style food served elsewhere in Europe, asked Naples’s most famous pizza maker, Raffaele Esposito, to prepare something for her. One of his three pizzas was topped simply with tomato sauce, mozzarella, and basil, arranged to echo the colours of the Italian flag. The Queen loved it, and Esposito named the dish in her honour. Pizza Margherita was born, and it remains one of the most iconic dishes in the world today.
The Tomato Comes to America
When large waves of Italian immigrants came to the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s, they brought a taste for tomatoes with them, along with olive oil and other foods that reminded them of home. Canned tomatoes became a staple in Italian neighborhoods across American cities like New York, Boston, Chicago, and Philadelphia. Italian immigration, more than any single event, is credited with driving the widespread American love of tomatoes and tomato-based dishes.
Meanwhile, back in the colonies and the early United States, tomatoes had a slower, quieter path to acceptance. Thomas Jefferson is known to have grown and enjoyed tomatoes in his garden at Monticello, and after taking his own version of a Grand Tour through Europe, he brought back seeds and recipes. Still, it wasn’t until the early 1900s that tomatoes became truly widespread and popular throughout the United States. Tomato soup helped that process along. The first known recipe appeared in an 1872 cookbook, and Campbell’s released its condensed version in 1897, putting tomato soup into kitchens across the country. Between Italian immigration and homegrown enthusiasm, the tomato had finally found its place at the American table.
HEALTH BENEFITS OF TOMATO
Studies suggest that eating tomatoes regularly is linked to a lower risk of serious health problems, including cancer, osteoporosis, and heart disease. People who eat tomatoes often tend to have lower cholesterol, lower blood pressure, more stable blood sugar, and less cell damage over time.
Tomatoes have been connected to a long list of other benefits too. They may help balance the body’s acidity, reduce migraines, support the immune system, and even offer some natural protection for the skin against sun damage. They’re also linked to stronger bones, better blood flow, help in reducing the effects of lead exposure, healthier eyes, and faster wound healing.
Much of this comes down to a single compound: lycopene. Lycopene is a natural pigment found in tomatoes and tomato products, and it’s one of the most powerful antioxidants in our diet. Antioxidants help protect the body’s cells from damage, and a diet rich in lycopene has been linked to a lower risk of chronic diseases like cancer and cardiovascular disease.
REFERENCES:
UVM Extension. (2023). History of tomatoes. University of Vermont Extension. https://www.uvm.edu/extension/news/history-tomatoes
Wei-Haas, M. (2020). Did a New Jersey court case make tomatoes popular in America? National Geographic. https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/tomato-history-salem-new-jersey
Roots Plants. (2024). Tomatoes origins: From deadly to delicious. Roots Plants. https://www.rootsplants.co.uk/blogs/features/tomatoes-origins-from-deadly-to-delicious#killer
Grand Voyage Italy. (2024). How the tomato became part of Italian culture. Grand Voyage Italy. http://www.grandvoyageitaly.com/piazza/how-the-tomato-became-part-of-italian-culture
Bergougnoux, V. (2020). History, botany, and taxonomy of tomato. In H. A. R. E. M. Abdel-Salam (Ed.), The tomato genome (pp. 209–228). Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7470-2_10
Kumar, A., Kumar, V., Gull, A., & Nayik, G.A. (2020). Tomato (Solanum Lycopersicon). In Antioxidants in Vegetables and Nuts – Properties and Health Benefits (pp. 191–207). Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-7470-2_10
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