Organically Grown Tomatoes Have Higher Levels of Vitamin C

A latest study from the Federal University of Ceara in Brazil states that organically grown tomatoes have higher levels of vitamin C when compared to conventionally grown tomatoes.

According to the study published in the journal PLoS ONE, organic tomatoes not only have higher levels of vitamin C, but also have a higher concentration of sugars and other compounds with oxidative stress.

This new finding contradicts the results published last September which stated that there is no difference between the vitamin content of organic and conventional food. The findings of the study that reviewed more than 200 tomatoes were published in the journal Annals of Internal Medicine, reports LiveScience.

In this study, the researchers compared the organic weights and biochemical properties of both organically and conventionally grown tomatoes. On analyzing the two, the researchers noticed that organic ones were 40 percent smaller than those grown conventionally. In addition, these had more compounds that were linked to stress resistance.

It has been reported that in the organic procedure, the plant is exposed to higher stress when compared to the plants grown conventionally.

They predict that the higher stress is a factor that causes organic tomatoes to have higher levels of vitamin C, and pigment molecules like lycopene.

Livescience quoted Harry Klee, a professor at the University of Florida's Horticultural Sciences Department, who was not a part of the study stating, organic tomatoes in this latest study might have had more nutrients because they were smaller and not because they were grown organically.