Tomatoes can significantly reduce heart disease....

A new study in Britain suggests that
regular intake of tomatoes can
significantly reduce heart disease.


The scientists also advised people with
high cholesterol to start taking
tomatoes or drink tomato juice to help
reduce the risk of heart attacks.

Tomatoes have long been considered a
healthy food. Researchers in the new
study included 21 volunteers, aged
between 20-49 and with normal
cholesterol levels.

Each volunteer spent three weeks without
consuming tomato products. Then they
spent three weeks taking either 30gm of
tomato puree or drank 400ml of tomato
juice everyday.

During the experiment, researchers took
regular blood samples of the volunteers
to check cholesterol levels and found
that those added a small quantity of
tomato in their breakfast, lunch and
tea, saw their Low-density lipoprotein
(LDL) levels dropped significantly over
a period of three weeks.

The LDL is known as “bad” cholesterol.
High levels of this cholesterol in the
blood can increase the risk of heart
disease.

Researchers at the University of Oulo in
Finland said the cholesterol levels
dropped by six percent and LDL levels by
13 percent in people who added tomatoes
in their meals, the online edition of
the Daily Mail reported.

“The changes we saw can be regarded as
significant, considering that the time
period was only three weeks and all the
volunteers had normal cholesterol levels
to start with,” scientists said in their
findings published in the latest issue
of the British Journal of Nutrition.

Less than five-millimoles of fat per
litre of blood in individuals is
considered healthy. Nearly 70 percent of
people aged over 45 in the study had
high levels of cholesterol.