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8 Health Benefits Of Eating Tomatoes
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There has been an ongoing debate as to whether a tomato is a fruit or a vegetable. The truth is that a tomato is a fruit, and when it is in season it is one of the most delicious, juicy, and tasty fruits that you can find.
There are more and more types of tomatoes every year. During their season you will find regular tomatoes, vine-ripe tomatoes, grape tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, beefsteak tomatoes, and heirloom tomatoes, to name a few.
Tomatoes can be used to make pasta sauce, homemade bruschetta, salsa, and a tomato and cucumber salad. In addition, they can be added to other dishes to bring about more flavor, such as in salads, pasta dishes, on fish, and in an omelet. But besides their unique taste, there are a number of other benefits you should know about to make sure you add tomatoes to your daily diet. Here are 8 ways tomatoes can benefit your health.
1. They are antioxidants
Two of the primary components that make up tomatoes are vitamin C and vitamin A. The fact that they have a good amount of each means that along with beta-carotene, they are able to carry on their work as antioxidants in order to take on the harmful free radicals that can cause problems in the blood. The free radicals can create damage to the cells in the blood stream. Make sure that if you are eating tomatoes for this purpose, eat them raw so that the vitamin C is not destroyed through cooking.
2. They cut down on the risk of cancer
Tomatoes are brimming with lycopene which has been proven to limit specific kinds of cancer. Two of these types include pancreatic cancer and breast cancer. It was proven that those who had a diet that was brimming with tomatoes had a 31% less chance of developing pancreatic cancer. It was also found that when tomato and broccoli powder were eaten together, they were able to delay the tumors associated with prostate cancer. It was also found that women who consumed high levels of tomatoes with large concentrations of carotenoids were protected from developing breast cancer.
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