Heart. Lycopene also may help lower your levels of LDL, or “bad” cholesterol, as well as your blood pressure. And that may lower your chances of heart disease. Other nutrients in tomatoes, like vitamins B and E and antioxidants called flavonoids, may boost your heart health, too.
Tomatoes and Heart Health
Some research shows that lycopene may lower LDL, or “bad” cholesterol, and keep blood from clotting, which lowers stroke risk. Potassium is a mineral that can help lower blood pressure by taking some of the sodium out of your body, and by relaxing the walls of your blood vessels.
Lycopene is a potent antioxidant that helps to prevent the LDL (or "bad") cholesterol in the bloodstream from being converted to oxidized LDL that forms plaques in arteries and causes heart attacks.
Help be heart healthy: Tomatoes contain lycopene, which may help lower your “bad” cholesterol and blood pressure levels. Lowering these numbers helps lower your chances of heart disease.
Eating too many tomatoes can cause heart burn or acid reflux due to the production of excess gastric acid in the stomach. People who frequently suffer from digestive stress or have symptoms of GERD (gastroesophageal reflux disease) may want to go easy on tomatoes. 2.
"Some of the alkaloids found in common nightshades can cause GI distress and even be poisonous to people, but only when consumed in excess or when eating these foods in unusual ways — such as eating a tomato's leaves or a potato after it's turned green," says Beaver.
You can “unclog” your arteries with natural methods, including diet, exercise, and stress management. Quitting smoking, if you smoke, can also help reverse plaque.
Tomatoes contain a great deal of Vitamin A and Vitamin C. This is primarily because these vitamins and beta-carotene work as antioxidants to neutralize harmful free radicals in the blood.
Eating tomatoes daily will provide you with many vitamins and minerals, but you'll still receive the benefits if you eat them less often. There is no recommended number of tomatoes to eat per day.
All the fruits in the berry-family, including strawberries, cranberries, and blueberries are significant blood thinners. Oranges, tangerines, cherries, raisins, prunes, pineapples, and tomatoes work in the same manner.
Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries are jam-packed with important nutrients that play a central role in heart health. Berries are also rich in antioxidants like anthocyanins, which protect against the oxidative stress and inflammation that contribute to the development of heart disease ( 9 ).
In vitro (15–19) and animal (19–23) studies suggest biological mechanisms through which magnesium may prevent or reverse plaque formation and calcification.
Drinking 12 ounces of apple juice a day significantly slowed one of the processes that clog arteries and can lead to a heart attack, the study shows. To a lesser degree, eating two apples a day also helped slow the process.
Drinking teas, such as green or black tea, rooibos tea, or ginger tea may be good heart-healthy substitutes for other beverages. A study from 2011 found that drinking 6 cups of rooibos tea per day for 6 weeks helped to lower the amount of LDL cholesterol in the blood in adults who were at risk for heart diseases.
Tomatoes are packed with an alkaloid called solanine. Consistent research shows that excessive consumption of tomatoes can result in swelling and pain in the joints as they are packed with an alkaloid called solanine.
Tomatoes contain a large amount of malic acid and citric acid, which will trigger gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). In addition, eating too many tomatoes can also cause other gastrointestinal problems such as irritable bowel syndrome (IBS).
Too much consumption of tomatoes can cause tomato leaf poisoning in some people. A few symptoms of this poisoning are irritation of throat and mouth, dizziness and it may sometimes even cause death. Due to their acidic nature, too much consumption of tomatoes might cause acid reflux.