Tomatoes are good for cholesterol, heart, skin

THE ONLY thing better than the taste of a sun-ripened tomato fresh off the vine is the knowledge that tomatoes are good for you.

They may raise good cholesterol, lower blood pressure, and keep skin looking younger.

Eaten for thousands of years in South America, tomatoes were feared initially by Europeans as insanity-causing "wolf peaches," and later revered as aphrodisiac "love apples." Today, tomatoes are esteemed as a health food.

They are rich in vitamin C and antioxidants, high in fiber and low in calories. And a cup of raw tomatoes has only 38 calories.

reasons to eat them

Recent research shows that tomatoes may help raise levels of "good" HDL cholesterol, the kind that acts as a scavenger, cleaning up arteries.

The details: A Chilean study showed that drinking concentrated tomato juice daily for a week raised HDL levels by 6 percent. Eating 1 cups a day of chopped tomatoes for a month raised HDL by 15 percent, according to Israeli researchers.

Most research suggests it's best to eat tomatoes--whether fresh, in sauces, soups or ketchup--rather than taking lycopene capsules, which contain one of the tomato pigments. However, taking lycopene capsules for eight weeks reduced blood pressure by 4 to 10 points, according to the American Heart Journal.

Other research suggests that eating tomato products may reduce the risk of prostate cancer, and a French study hints that eating tomatoes is linked to a lower risk of asthma.

balm for the skin

There's still more good news about tomatoes.

A German study found that eating tomato paste daily for 10 weeks reduced the development of sunburns. (However, it's important to remember that eating tomatoes is not a substitute for wearing sun block and limiting sun exposure.) Sunburns have been linked to skin cancer and premature wrinkling, so perhaps eating tomatoes may help people avoid those things, too.

The German sunburn scientists gave their volunteers tomato paste with the equivalent of 16 milligrams of lycopene a day. Most of us don't eat plain tomato paste, but you can get that much lycopene from cup tomato sauce, a cup of tomato soup or tomato juice, or six tablespoons of ketchup.

Eating tomatoes

Now that you know some reasons why tomatoes are good for you, how can you incorporate them into your diet?

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GAZPACHO Makes 6 servings.

3 pounds tomatoes (about six tomatoes)

1 medium cucumber

2 cloves garlic

1 green bell pepper

2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar (or lemon or lime juice)

1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

optional herbs: cup of basil, lemon thyme or parsley leaves

pepper to taste

Cook's note: You don't need to measure exact amounts, but should have roughly twice as many tomatoes as all the other veggies combined. Procedure: Puree it all in the blender and swirl in a spoonful of balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Serve at room temperature or chilled. You won't even notice that there's no salt in the soup. Nutritional information per serving: 76 calories, 2 grams protein, 3 g fat, 12 g carbohydrate, less than 1 gram fiber, 20 mg sodium, 1,600 units vitamin A, 72 mg Vitamin C, 0 g cholesterol. Recipe developed from: Jen's trial and error.

Date published: 7/15/2007

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