Fight Hypertension

Fruit and vegetables can improve your health and well being in a number of different ways. For example, if you eat a salad of green leaves and tomatoes, you will be taking on board a good helping of lycopene, and this can help to keep your blood pressure down.

Israeli scientists recently confirmed that tomatoes, and products made with tomato, lower blood pressure and thus decrease the risk of heart disease too.

The study in Israel was led by Esther Paran. She is head of the hypertension unit at Soroka Medical Center, and the research involved a double blind test of patients who were already being treated for hypertension, but who were not responding well to the usual hypertension relieving drugs. These patients - or half of them actually - were given a supplement of tomato extract for a week, and those taking the extract exhibited a meaningful drop in blood pressure after only four weeks.

It is the lycopene content (lycopene is a powerful antioxidant)of tomatoes that makes them so effective in lowering the blood pressure. Following on from the research, the Israeli company Lycomato now grows hybrid fruit so that the lycopene content of each tomato is elevated. Lycopene is not the only antioxidant found in the tomato, so they are exceptionally good for us.

Recommended tomato consumption is four per day. Eating raw tomato is not always enjoyable so hear are five other ways to get your daily fix.

1. Make Chili. Tomato puree can be used as the base for this, and garlic which is also good at lowering blood cholesterol, is another vital ingredient. Lean meat, kidney beans and perhaps some fresh tomatoes can be added to the mix together with raw chili peppers and chili powder to give it a real zing.
2. Pasta Sauce. Make pasta sauce using fresh tomatoes, tomato puree and maybe some sundried tomatoes. Make sure to add in plenty of olive oil as this can enhance the health giving properties of the tomatoes.
3. Salad. You should eat one fresh salad a day and make sure to include a tomato in the ingredients. Tomato salad is also tasty - slice the tomatoes and mix them with sliced onion and a little torn basil, then drizzle with virgin olive oil and grate on some black pepper.
4. Drink it! The best way to do this is to make your own tomato juice with a juicer, as prepared juice can control extra salt and sugars. You can add other vegetables such as celery and carrot, and lemon juice adds interest to the flavor too.
5. Take a tomato supplement. A 200mg supplement contains the equivalent of more than four tomatoes' worth of antioxidant.

Richard has worked in the health industry for over 4 years now and loves to write about health. Richard also has a website dedicated to looking at facts about wind turbines on his renewable energy website at:
http://renewablehomepower.org