page hit tracking

i am using php MySQL and i want to know how i can make a hidden value for certain entries in a table and how many times they are called. for instance, say i have a table of vegetables people can look at. the page displays all of the vegetables, and then it generates links to each one and if the user clicks on one then the page just calls itself and displays more information about the vegetables. now, how do i make a counter where theres a field in the table where it increases by 1 everytime someone looks at a particular vegetable. i really am new to this so thank you for your help. thanks -james