Apart from having good taste, there are many reasons for you to add tomatoes to your healthy diet. Studies found that tomatoes are packed with health- enhancing properties. They can be prepared in lots of dishes, and they are also great to eat alone.
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Top 14 Reasons To Add Tomatoes To Your Diet: WikiHealthBlog |
Now, you should spend time reading this interesting article to know how the humble tomato can help improve human health.
List Of Benefits Of Tomatoes For Beauty And Health
There are lots of benefits of tomatoes for beauty and health. And, in this article, we will show you some of the top reasons why we should include these humble tomatoes in your regularly diet.
1. Prevent Several Types Of Cancer
A few studies have been shown that the high content of lycopene in tomatoes can help reduce your risks of developing colorectal, prostate and stomach cancer. Studies showed that lycopene is a powerful antioxidant that helps slow down the development of cancerous cells. Just keep in mind that eating cooked tomatoes produce more lycopene than eating it raw. Therefore, you should consider making some dishes with cooked tomatoes.
2. Provide Essential Antioxidants
Tomatoes contain high contents of vitamin A and C. These essential vitamins and beta-carotene act as powerful antioxidants in order to neutralize the effects of harmful free radicals in the body. Studies found that free radicals in the blood can lead to cell damage. Just remember that the redder the tomatoes you consume are, the more beta-carotene they contain. Plus, you also need to remember that cooking can destroy the benefits of vitamin C, so it is recommended to eat raw tomatoes.
3. Improve The Vision
The vitamin A present in tomatoes is good for your eyes. It is recommended to get 700- 900 mcg of vitamin A daily, depending on gender. And, just a cup of tomatoes can offer you 1,499IU of vitamin A, or nearly 50% of the daily requirement for men and 64% of daily requirement for women.
Moreover, consuming tomatoes is a simple way to prevent night blindness from developing thanks to their high content of lycopene, lutein, and zeaxanthin. Zeaxanthin and lutein are the only carotenoids present in the lens and retina of the eye. They help remove harmful rays damaging the eye tissue and simultaneously prevent eye related diseases. As the body cannot create lutein and zeaxanthin, it is recommended to consume 12 mg of zeaxanthin and lutein daily from diets. Luckily, a cup of tomatoes offers up to 221 mg.
4. Improve Skin Health
Tomatoes have a high content of lycopene, which can be found in some facial cleansers. If you want to make use of tomatoes for improving skin health, start with 8-12 tomatoes. Simply, peel these tomatoes and then place the inside of the tomato on your facial skin.
Leave it on for at least 10 minutes before washing it off. And then, you will notice that your face becomes cleaner and shinier. If redness occurs, you should not feel worried because it will fade with time.
5. Repair Damage Caused By Smoking
When it comes to benefits of tomatoes for health, you should not ignore that they can help repair damage caused by smoking. Eating tomatoes cannot help you quit smoking; nonetheless, eating tomatoes can help reduce damage caused by smoking cigarettes.
This is because tomatoes contain compounds called coumaric acid and chlorogenic acid, which help to protect the body from harmful chemicals produced from cigarette smoke.
6. Prevent Heart Disease
There are lots of recipes using tomatoes when you follow a Mediterranean diet. According to a study, people who follow a Mediterranean diet may have reduced risks of developing heart diseases because consuming tomato-based products and olive oil has heart-healthy effects.
As we mentioned above, tomatoes are rich in beta-carotene, lycopene, folate, vitamin C, vitamin E, potassium, and flavonoids. All of these nutrients may protect vascular cells and lipoproteins from oxidation, which may causes plaque buildup in the arteries.
Also, according to two studies, healthy people and people with type 2 diabetics who consumed tomatoes as well as tomato products had lower levels of ‘bad’ cholesterol and levels of blood pressure.
By adding tomatoes to your regular diet, you will be able to prevent strokes, heart attacks, and other heart- related issues.
7. Fight Inflammation
Quercetin and kaempferol are two main compounds present in tomato skins. And, these compounds can work as super antioxidants that have ability to deal with inflammation. Actually, this is one of the reasons to add tomatoes to your diet that you should not skip.
8. Provide Potassium
Another benefit of tomatoes for health is that they provide our body with potassium. Potassium is an essential mineral because it helps reduce the risks of strokes, controls the blood pressure, prevents cardiovascular diseases and simultaneously relax the muscles.
According to a study, a large tomato offers 431mg of potassium, accounting for 10% of your daily requirement.
9. Improve Skin Health
Collagen is the connective tissues in the skin and it helps increase the suppleness, firmness, elasticity and renewal of the skin. However, the production of collagen depends on vitamin C.
As you know that vitamin C helps protect the skin from harmful UV rays, pollutants, sun damage, as well as cell-damaging free radicals. Studies found that one cup of tomato juice contains about 45mg of vitamin C, accounting for 74% of your daily requirement.
10. Improve Hair Health
The vitamin A found in tomatoes has been proven to help keep the hair strong, healthy and shiny. Applying tomato juice to your hair can add a glossy sheen to your dry strands. It can aid to increase the pH levels in the hair when used as a natural conditioner.
Moreover, tomatoes are also rich in essential vitamins such as A and C, which help make hair strands healthier and stronger. A tomato hair mask can be used to increase scalp circulation thanks to its essential nutrients while its acidic nature can help deal with an overabundance of fungus on your scalp.
11. Be Good For The Kidneys
It may sound strange when it comes to learning benefits of tomatoes for health, but tomatoes are good for kidney health. Adding tomatoes without seeds to your diet has been proven in some studies to reduce the risk of kidney stones.
12. Increase The Folate Intake
Folate helps increase your chances of fertility and also deals with fatigue. Studies found that people who have higher levels of folate in their foods have lower risks of getting depression. It is recommended that men should get 400mcg of folate daily while women should get 400-600 mcg. Studies found that one cup of tomato juice contains 48.6mcg of folate, or accounting for 12% of your daily requirement.
13. Balance Blood Sugar Levels
Alpha-lipoic acid is known as an antioxidant to help convert glucose into energy. It attacks harmful free radicals and then regenerates other antioxidants. We can get more this powerful antioxidant from our diet. When the levels of alpha-lipoic acid are increased, it may lower blood sugar levels.
14. Maintain Strong Bones
This is the last but very important one of the top reasons to add tomatoes to your diet that we want to mention in this article. Tomatoes contain high levels of calcium and Vitamin K, both of which are important for strengthening the bones and healing minor damages on the bones and bone tissues.
After reading this article, we hope that you knew some of the best benefits of tomatoes for beauty and health. After that, we hope that, you can include these healthy fruits in your regular diet to reap all of their benefits.
If you know other reasons to add tomatoes to your diet, you should share them with other readers by leaving your words in the comment box below. One more thing, if you want to know more about health and beauty tips, you can visit our Healthy Guide Site regularly.