I read an article recently which went something along the lines of ‘stuffing a sandwich with tomatoes will cause you to feel stuffed sooner, therefore eat less and so lose weight’.
Hmm… I have eaten a great number of tomato sandwiches and have to say this little willpower placebo has yet to work its magic on me.
In one of those cruel twists of fate it probably only works if you don’t like tomatoes or like them but not in sandwiches because of the supposed sogginess they impart.
However the article made me reflect that tomatoes are often heralded as having significant health giving properties. Usually I pay no attention to these stories as increasing my tomato consumption is not something I need to work on. However I thought it might be interesting to go in search of claims made on behalf of tomatoes.
Some of these claims relate to what happens to mice when fed tomatoes, some are related to extractions or modified tomatoes and some to cooked tomatoes.
But they do all lead back to tomatoes. This is a selection of what I came across:
- Tomato has anti blood clotting properties. It stops/reduces blood becoming sticky and so forming clots/flowing freely through blood vessels. This quality links it to preventing deep vein thrombosis, heart attacks and strokes.
- Tomato fights endometriosis by preventing internal scarring
- Tomato plays a role in the prevention of emphysema
- Tomato forms part of a vaccine against Alzheimers
- Tomato offers protection against sunburn
- Tomato increases production of collagen which keeps skin supple
- Tomato plays a role in the protection against prostate cancer as well as slowing its progress if the disease has occurred
All of which would seem like the perfect excuse for gluttony. You may be feeling full after that tomato sandwich but for the sake of getting all these other benefits it looks as if you might just have to force yourself to eat another after all !
Photo by Martin LaBar
