Have you had your tomato today?
If you suffer from high blood pressure, you should.
Right now, you may be asking yourself what in world does tomato have to do with blood pressure?
It is a known fact that Italians are not plagued by heart disease the way people in other parts of the world are.
Well, a recent double-blind study conducted in Israel has confirmed why Italians have enjoyed healthy hearts for centuries.
It all has to do with red tomatoes, and their power to lower blood pressure, and the risk of heart disease.
Dr. Esther Paran, head of the hypertension division of Soroka Medical Center in Israel led a study that involved patients whose blood pressure was still high in spite of taking hypertension medication.
Dr. Paran had patients take a daily supplement of tomato extract. What happened was very encouraging.
Within 4 weeks, her patients experienced a significant drop in their blood pressure.
Red tomatoes contain a powerful antioxidant known as lycopene that may help prevent some forms of cancer, heart disease, and other serious diseases.
Research shows that lycopene in tomatoes can be absorbed more efficiently by the body if processed into juice, sauce, paste, and ketchup.
The chemical form of lycopene found in tomatoes is converted by the temperature changes involved in processing to make it more easily absorbed by the body.
In order to get the blood pressure lowering effect of tomato, you’d have to eat at least four tomatoes daily.
This can be a difficult task for most people; however, there are other ways in which you can boost your daily lycopene intake:
1. Drink tomato juice. Be careful with the high sodium, and sugar content of store bought tomato juice. If making your own fresh tomato juice is not an option, then chose a store brand that is low in sodium and sugar. If you make your own tomato juice, you can add celery which is another food that is shown to lower blood pressure.
2. Add tomato to your salad. Tomato incorporates well with most salads.
3. Tomato paste has very high concentration of lycopene.
Add tomato paste to your pasta sauce, gravies, and soup. Not only will you enjoy a tasty meal, you’ll also be doing your heart a big favor.
4. Feel like having a snack?
Make a bowl of salsa with red tomatoes, finely chopped onion, bell pepper, cilantro, seeded mild or hot peppers, low sodium salt, some apple cider vinegar and lemon juice to taste.
Serve it with toasted pita bread wedges, or corn tortilla chips
Adding tomatoes to your diet is a healthy choice.
As evidenced by the Israeli study, tomatoes can reduce systolic blood pressure by 10 points, and diastolic pressure by 4 points.
So, whatever way you consume it, the tomato is one food that lowers blood pressure and will help keep your cardiovascular system healthy.
