Tomatoes are both fruits and vegetables. What are the benefits of eating tomatoes often?

Tomato is a very common food, but it plays an important role in the treatment of diseases. Tomatoes are very nutritious. Eating more tomatoes will bring you a lot of unexpected benefits. Of course, no matter how good it is, there are always dietary items to pay attention to, and we also need to know the taboos of eating tomatoes. Tomato is as nutritious as green leafy vegetables, it is rich in β-carotene, vitamin C, potassium, pectin, lycopene and so on. Lycopene is particularly eye-catching.

Lycopene is a carotenoid that is red. Lycopene has strong antioxidant capacity and can scavenge free radicals in the body. Some studies have said that its free radical scavenging effect is 2 times that of β-carotene and 100 times that of vitamin E. In addition, lycopene can also block the formation of nitrosamines, showing a certain anticancer effect.

It is generally recommended that the daily intake of lycopene should be 5 mg to 10 mg per person, and 3 mg to 8 mg per 100 g of tomatoes, so eating 1 mg or 2 tomatoes a day can meet the needs. Tomato products, such as ketchup, tomato juice, tomato sauce, tomato powder also contain a lot of lycopene. In addition to tomatoes, watermelons, carrots, grapes, red grapefruit, strawberries, oranges also contain lycopene, but the content is not as high as tomatoes.

The benefits of eating tomatoes

① anticancer, antioxidant, scavenging free radicals: because it is rich in lycopene, lycopene has this function

② has a good antithrombotic effect, which can prevent coronary heart disease, myocardial infarction and other diseases and protect the heart.

③ lycopene has strong antioxidant properties, which can prevent the damage of oxygen free radicals to cardiomyocytes, so as to prevent cholesterol in blood from being converted into lipid metabolites adhering to the arterial wall, resulting in vascular stenosis, blood flow obstruction and heart disease.

Be careful when eating tomatoes

1. Should not eat cucumber together with cucumber contains a vitamin C decomposition enzyme, will destroy vitamin C in other vegetables, tomatoes are rich in vitamin C, if the two are eaten together, will not achieve the effect of supplementary nutrition.

two。 When taking anticoagulant drugs such as heparin and dicoumarin, tomatoes contain more vitamin K, which mainly catalyzes the synthesis of thrombin in the liver. When vitamin K is insufficient, it will prolong the clotting time and cause subcutaneous and muscle bleeding.

3. On an empty stomach, tomatoes contain a large number of soluble astringents and other ingredients, which react with gastric acid and agglomerate into insoluble lumps, which can easily cause gastrointestinal distension, pain and other uncomfortable symptoms.

4. It is not suitable to eat immature tomato green tomato contains alkaloid glycosides, after eating, the mouth will feel bitter and astringent, and when it is severe, there will be poisoning.

5. It is not suitable to eat after long-term heating and cooking, it will lose its original nutrition and taste after long-term heating cooking.

6. Should not eat a large number of tomatoes on an empty stomach, the amount of gastric acid secretion increases on an empty stomach, resulting in stomach discomfort and stomachache.