A tomato is a super food full of nutrients and suitable for many body parts. That is likely because the plant is in the family of poisonous nightshades.
What health benefits do tomatoes have? This article will look at the powerful health benefits of tomatoes, their nutritional value, ways to eat more tomatoes, and the risks of eating tomatoes.
A quick look at tomatoes
Tomatoes can help protect against cancer, keep blood pressure at a healthy level, and lower blood sugar in people with diabetes. Essential arytenoids like lutein and lycopene are found in tomatoes. These can protect the eye from damage caused by light.
What health benefits do tomatoes have?
Tomatoes are a very healthy plant-based food.
Different types have different health benefits. Cherry tomatoes, for example, have more beta-carotene than regular tomatoes. Getting more fruits and vegetables lowers the risk of being overweight and dying.
Illness
Tomatoes are a great source of antioxidants and vitamin C. With these parts, tomatoes can help stop free radicals from forming. It is known that free radicals cause cancer.
A new study found
In Cancer Research, a reliable source linked taking in a lot of beta-carotene to stopping prostate cancer tumors from growing. It is also what gives tomatoes their red color.
Blood pressure
Keeping your sodium intake low helps keep your blood pressure healthy. Getting more potassium is just as important because it makes the arteries bigger. A 20% lower chance of dying is also linked to a high potassium intake and a low sodium intake.
A healthy heart
Tomatoes are good for your heart because they have fiber, potassium, vitamin C, and chorine. Folate is also in tomatoes. It helps keep homocysteine levels in check. One of the risks is lower when homocysteine levels are controlled by folate—a source you can trust about heart disease.
Hard stools
Eating foods like tomatoes high in water and fiber can help you stay hydrated and usually allow your bowels to move. People often say that tomatoes are a laxative fruit. More research is needed to prove that tomatoes can help you go to the bathroom.
Healthy eyes
There is evidence that these powerful antioxidants protect the eyes—a trusted Source against damage caused by light, cataract formation, and age-related macular degeneration (AMD).
Skin
Vitamin C is important for making collagen in the body. Scurvy can happen if you don’t get enough vitamin C. As vitamin C is a strong antioxidant, not getting enough of it is linked to more damage from the sun, pollution, and smoke. That can cause wrinkles, sagging skin, spots, and other skin problems that are bad for your health.
Lose Weight
A study found that tomato juice can help people lose weight, fat, and waist size. It can also lower cholesterol, which can make you gain weight.
What health benefits do tomatoes have? Tomatoes Improve Vision
Tomatoes are good for your eyes because they have a lot of vitamin A. Your eyes’ retinas need vitamin A; over time, not getting enough of it can make you go blind.
Lycopene in tomatoes protects your eyes from damage caused by free radicals, which could hurt your eyes otherwise. Lycopene also keeps the eyes from getting hurt by the sun.
While the first might help prevent cataracts from getting worse with age, the second helps make melanin, an important black pigment in the eyes.
A quick tip: choose canned tomatoes instead of fresh ones during the cooler months. Canned tomatoes have more vitamins and minerals; since winter, they might be cheaper too.
Help Manage Diabetes
People with diabetes mellitus who took tomato supplements for a long time felt better. Even though more research needs to be done on this topic, the finding is encouraging.
Tomatoes may stop urine stones from forming
Another study showed that fresh tomato juice might help stop the formation of urinary stones
Tomatoes help keep gallstones from forming
Eating tomatoes can lower the chance of getting gallstones and kidney stones. For example, you could add canned or stewed tomatoes to your soups and stews to lower your risk of getting gallstones.
Tomatoes Enhance Your Immune System
In one study, test subjects’ white blood cells worked better when they ate a lot of tomatoes. Free radicals did 38 percent less damage to white blood cells, which are known to fight infections.
Tomatoes help reduce pain and swelling
Tomatoes also have zeta-carotene, phytofluene, and photogene, three other antioxidants found in most brightly colored fruits and vegetables.
These are good for men’s health.
That found that the lycopene in tomatoes can increase male fertility by up to 70%. Not only that, but it also helps sperm move better and does less damage.
Tomatoes are good for the liver
The lycopene in tomatoes gets rid of the things that damage DNA, which is good for the liver. Tomatoes also have some B-complex vitamins that are good for the liver. And here’s a cool fact: the liver is the only organ in the human body that can heal itself. It can grow back lost tissue, and if only 25% of the organ is hurt, it can grow back into a whole liver.
Is it safe for everyone to eat tomatoes?
Solanine, which find in fruits and vegetables in the nightshade family, is thought by many to make arthritis and joint pain worse. If you take certain medicines, like beta blockers for high blood pressure, you should do what your doctor or other health care professional says.
Advice on how to eat
The lycopene in tomatoes is a big reason they are good for you. According to research, tomatoes grown in fields have more lycopene than tomatoes grown in greenhouses. Eating them with fats like avocado or extra virgin olive oil makes it easier for the lycopene to get into the bloodstream from the digestive tract.
Eating tomatoes regularly in raw and cooked forms is best, both of which have health benefits. You can put raw tomatoes in everything from omelets to salads to avocado toast. Enjoy fresh pico de gallo. Put hummus, olive tapenade, or greens dressed with vinaigrette in fresh tomatoes. Raw tomatoes can grill or roast in the oven.
Summary
Tomatoes may help protect the health of your brain, heart, and gut, backed up by research. The fruit-like vegetable is a good source of vitamins and minerals like vitamin C, potassium, and the antioxidant lycopene.
Some people might not be able to eat them because of their health, but most people can eat raw and cooked tomatoes as part of a healthy diet. Talk to a healthcare provider to find out if tomatoes and the nutrients like lycopene they contain could help with a certain condition.
