The Health Benefits of Tomatoes

Enjoy juicy, ripe tomatoes for their taste, as well as these health benefits:

Avoid depression

Japanese researchers showed that eating tomato products two to six times a week cut the risk of depression in the elderly by 46 percent compared with those who ate them less than once a week. Those who ate tomatoes daily reduced depression risk by 52 percent. Other fruit and vegetables did not show the same effect.

Maintain your muscles

A large tomato has nine percent of your daily potassium needs (about the same as a medium banana). Potassium is important for heart function, digestion and muscle performance.

Guard against prostate cancer

A study published recently in Cancer Prevention Research showed that tomatoes and soy may be more effective in helping prevent prostate cancer when eaten together than when either is eaten alone. Scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign tested mice bred to develop the cancer. At the end of the study, half the mice that had eaten tomato and soy had no cancerous lesions in the prostate, while the mice that ate no soy and no tomato all developed prostate cancer.

Help prevent stroke

Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant found in tomatoes. A Finnish study published last year in Neurology showed men with the highest blood levels of lycopene had a 59 percent lower risk of stroke caused by a blood clot, and were 55 percent less likely to have any type of stroke, than those with the lowest levels.

Source: www.besthealthmag.ca