Eating Tomatoes

I'm adding a new goal this week- Goal#39- which is to add  tomatoes to my diet at least 3 times a week. I love tomatoes and I'm always happy to eat them, but I often forget to have them on hand for adding to salads, sandwiches, and other dishes. Tomatoes are known for being rich in antioxidants, especially lycopene. Lycopene from tomatoes has been studied as a preventative for breast cancer and has also been positively associated with cardiovascular and bone health. Some studies have indicated that humans absorb lycopene more readily from cooked or dried tomatoes than from fresh tomatoes, but I'm not going to limit myself either way on that front.  I'll eat fresh tomatoes when they're good and switched to canned or dried tomatoes when they're not.  I do wish that I'd made this goal earlier in the year, as tomato season has just about ended, at least in the area where I live. I will be snapping up the last of the local cherry and sungold tomatoes and looking forward to nest year's crop.