How Healthy is Tomato?

A good fruit that is often used as a vegetable, the tomato in our food is used in almost all preparations, its health benefits far surpassing its usage. A native to S. and Central America, tomato belongs to the nightshade taxonomical family, is loaded with nutritious values. Incidentally, Europeans thought it to be a poisonous berry when they found it! We could give the credit of making tomato known to the entire world to the Spanish; they introduced it in the Philippines and Europe, from where it moves to the rest of Southeast Asia. Presently, India and China are the world’s largest producers of tomatoes. And while it mostly comes in red, the tomato is also obtainable in different colors (including purple)! Tomatoes are rich in minerals and vitamins, including

The tomato is often referred to as a functional food, meaning it goes beyond just offering essential nutrition. One vital reason is the presence of lycopene, a mighty antioxidant that boosts health in numerous ways. There are several varieties, but the most known are cherry tomatoes, plum tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, grape tomatoes, and berries.

Now let’s go through the various ways we could pay some prices to earn the sound health we so much desire:

1. Suitable for the Skin and Hair

Given the increasing levels of pollution, our hair and skin end up carrying a lot of the brunt. Incorporating some tomatoes in your diet helps to combat the wear and tear our skin often goes through. Tomatoes are high in lycopene, a substance frequently added to facial cleansers. And apart from just eating them as delicious salad, you can also peel some tomatoes and use the peels as masks on your face. It refreshes and cleanses your skin. And the retinol (Vitamin A) in tomatoes shields your hair from external damages alongside!

2. Tomatoes Help Prevent Cancer

Lycopene in tomatoes, according to the American Institute for Cancer Research (AICR), could be responsible for its anti-cancer properties. Lycopene is a strong antioxidant belonging to the carotenoid family. Its radiant antioxidant properties have been proved to neutralize free radicals produced in our bodies due to diverse reasons. Even laboratory shreds of evidence show that tomato contents could prevent the spread of many cancer cell types.

More importantly, you can benefit from the cancer-fighting potent of tomatoes by taking them in processed forms like juice, sauce, or tomatoes paste. Doing so would allow the natural components in tomatoes to be easily utilized by the body.

3. Keep Your Bones Healthy

I hope you know that tomatoes are packed with Calcium and Vitamin K? Hundred grams of tomatoes, according to the United States Department of Agriculture, contain approximately 110 milligrams of calcium. This means your bones become stronger as long as you keep eating tomatoes.

4. Tomatoes Help in Weight Loss.

Tomato juice, according to a Chinese research study, can significantly lower body weight, waist circumference, and body fat. It also can reduce cholesterol levels that may invest in weight gaining. Apart from being a wonderful source of antioxidants, tomato is also rich in fiber and too low in calories. Owing to these, they promote satiety and even cut down your calorie intake, thus aiding weight loss.

5. Reverse Damages from Smoking

Kiwi is known to benefit our system whenever we quit smoking. But the chlorogenic and coumaric acids in tomatoes help to shield the body from the harsh effects of cigarette smoke, which works for passive smokers.

Smoking leads to excessive production of free radicals in the body, which can be effectively countered with ascorbic acid, which is why tomatoes work for smokers. Lower levels of in this aspect can result in cancer and heart disease.

Non-smoking women and men, according to the National Institutes of Health, frequently need 75 mg and 90 mg of ascorbic acid, respectively; smokers need an additional 35 mg. About 100 grams of raw tomatoes have almost 13.7 mg of ascorbic acid (vitamin C). Nonetheless, if you are pregnant and you still smoke, you have a more considerable need to take more vitamins C.

A Cornell University publication claims that the lycopene in tomatoes can wipe away up to 90% of harmful free radicals in the body.

6. Tomatoes are Good for Pregnant Women

Ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is undoubtedly one of the nutrients all pregnant women need to keep them and their babies healthy. It aids in the healthy formation of bones, gums, and teeth. This vitamin also aids in the normal utilization of iron in our body, yet another pertinent nutrient during pregnancy.

The lycopene in the fruit offers protection against cell atrophy. Although the safety of taking lycopene supplements for pregnant women is still questionable, antioxidants from natural sources are very much safer through the gestational period.

Incorporating tomatoes into your diet can improve iron bioavailability. And according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, the vitamin C in the fruit helps protect both women and their babies.

7. A Brilliant Antioxidant

Tomatoes are a mind-blowing source of Vitamin A (retinol) and Vitamin C. And these two components help our body to evacuate free radicals in our blood. However, to absorb ascorbic acid effectively into the system, your tomatoes need to be eaten raw, so bring them on those salads.

8. Beneficial to the Heart

Tomatoes might not help heal a broken heart, but retinol (Vitamin A), B-vitamins, and potassium in them help lower our blood cholesterol levels. It also prevents heart-linked diseases in the long run. So start snacking up on tomatoes today.

9. Tomatoes Aids the Digestive Process

Tomatoes are brilliant sources of chloride, which is a vital component of digestive juices. One report also mentions the efficacy of lycopene in tomatoes in treating gastric cancer. The fiber content of tomatoes helps in this case; 100 grams of fresh and mature tomatoes give you an average of 2 grams of fiber (both insoluble and soluble fiber), hence promoting gut health.

Eating antioxidant-rich foods such as tomatoes may also help deal with enteritis, a condition in which the intestinal lining is inflamed.

10. Controls Blood Sugar

Tomatoes are well known to poses a mineral called chromium. And did you know that chromium helps to keep your blood sugar levels in check? So for people who have diabetes, or any history of it in the linage, it would be a fantastic fruit to include in your diet.

11. Tomatoes Help Prevent Gallstones

According to Michigan State University’s publication, consuming enough tomatoes can reduce the risk of kidney stones as well as gallstones.

Some ways of incorporating tomatoes into your diet to prevent gallstones could be through adding either stewed or canned versions to your stews and soups. You could as well make some fresh salsa and add tomatoes as a topping on your salads, eggs, or meat.

12. Tomatoes Enhance Your Immune System

A tomato-rich diet had been proved to enhance the function of the white blood cells (WBC) in the human body. The (WBCs), which are well known to combat infections, sustained 38 % less damage from deadly free radicals. According to some experts, the lycopene in tomatoes might boost this ability of these lymphocytes.

Supplementing a low-carotenoid diet, according to a German study with tomatoes, might boost immune function.

13. It Helps to Burn Fat

If you are placed on a diet, now is just the perfect time to include tomatoes as part of your daily relish. Tomatoes aid the synthesis of carnitine, an amino acid that is reported to boost the body’s fat metabolizing abilities to at least 30 percent or even more.

14. Tomatoes are Suitable for Men

The lycopene in tomatoes helps to boost fertility in the male by as much as 70%. The antioxidant also helps to reduce the number of abnormal sperm cells. And not just that, lycopene also improves sperm motility and reduces further damage to it.

According to a Boston study, a weekly intake of about 3 servings of tomato sauce reduced prostate cancer risk by almost 35% and chronic prostate cancer by 50%.

According to another study, men having the highest lycopene concentrations in their rations were discovered to have a 59% reduced risk of ischemic stroke (caused by a continuous obstruction of vesicular blood flow).