Tangy, delicious and nutritious – three words that perfectly describe tomatoes. If you love this fruit (yes, fruit), you’d be delighted to know that tomato has a lot of health benefits. Tomato is rich in lycopene, an antioxidant known to fight cancers. It’s also teeming with vitamins C and A. In a recent study, researchers have said that drinking unsalted tomato juice may also help in reducing high blood pressure. But that’s not the only health benefit of drinking the juice. Here’s a complete list of health benefits of tomato juice.

Tomato Juice Nutrition

Tomato juice is rich in antioxidants, vitamins and minerals. Tomatoes have lycopene, a powerful carotenoid with a range of health benefits. A single cup of tomato juice has 41.3 calories. It provides you 22 percent of your daily requirement of vitamin A, 74 percent of vitamin C, 13 percent of vitamin B6. It also has good amounts of potassium, sodium, zinc, manganese, folate, thiamine and niacin.

1. Good For the Heart

Lycopene in tomatoes has cardioprotective benefits. The potassium, vitamin C and choline in tomatoes are good for the overall heart health. Folate in tomatoes helps balance the homocysteine levels, which reduces the chances of heart attacks.

2. Improves Vision

If you think your eyesight is waning, a glass of tomato juice a day should do the trick. Lycopene, lutein and beta carotene content in tomatoes help improve eye health and protect them against cataracts and macular degeneration.

3. Beautifies Skin

Drinking tomato juice daily can make a world of difference for your skin. A single cup of tomato juice can serve 74 percent of vitamin C you require daily. Collagen, an important component of skin, hair and nails, is produced with the help of vitamin C. It also helps reduce the damage done by pollution, sunlight and ageing.

4. Fights Cancer

Lycopene a polyphenol which gives tomatoes their rich, red colour is a cancer-fighting agent. Studies have confirmed that tomatoes can inhibit the growth of cancers, especially those of the prostate, liver and skin. Eat a Lot of Tomatoes every day to Keep Liver Cancer Away.

5. Lowers Blood Pressure

A new study published in the journal Food Science and Nutrition has shown that drinking unsalted tomato juice can lower blood pressure and cholesterol levels in adults who carry the risk of heart diseases.

While tomato juice is teeming with health benefits, it’s not as nutritious as eating the whole fruit. Packaged tomato juice also comes with added preservatives and salts, which ups its sodium content. Excessive sodium can have an opposite effect on blood pressure, worsening hypertension instead of reducing it. Spicy Tomatoes Will Soon Become a Reality as Scientists Will Genetically Engineer the Fruit.

Even the fibre content in tomato juice is much lesser than that in a whole tomato. So while tomato juice can do a lot of good, it’s always better to eat tomatoes whole than to juice them.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 07, 2019 04:20 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).