5 Easy Ways and 1 Great Fruit to Lower Blood Pressure

It is not as widely known as one might think that there really is one great fruit that can lower blood pressure. The humble tomato has been proven, in recent Israeli studies to help lower blood pressure, reduce the risk of cancer later in life, and helps to keep your heart healthy and working as it should.

It is not completely understood as to why this has only just recently been discovered, as scientists have tested thousands of different types of fruit and vegetables to determine their potential health benefits. The best news of all is the tomato is so easy to get a hold of. You can buy them almost anywhere, and even some of the big brands of tomato sauce contain enough real tomatoes to be just as beneficial, although not in massive quantities as they also contain rather a lot of sugar.

Fresh tomatoes are a very effective anti-oxidant and also help to reduce the risk of most forms of heart disease. Shocking that the Italians, who are well known for having a very low rate of heart disease cases reported, have been eating so many tomatoes for such a long time, and nobody has picked up on it.

The study on the health benefits of tomatoes was led by Dr. Esther Paran, who is the leading lady at the hypertension division of Soroka Medical Center. It was mostly a case study performed on patients suffering from hyper-tension, where other medicines had completely failed. Dr. Paran gave patients a dose of concentrated tomato essence, along with adding tomatoes into their diets, at least more than usual.

The results were astonishing. Dr. Paran saw results fast, sometimes in as little as four or five weeks. This aqueous fruit definitely looks to be an almost miracle treatment, although it is not a cure.

The effectiveness of the tomato in lowering blood pressure etc. is attributed to the natural presence of the chemical lycopene. This is a very powerful anti-oxidant that has recently been extracted from "hybrid" tomatoes that were grown in Israel, called the Lycomato, which were specifically grown to ensure higher concentrations of Lycopene, inside each and every piece of tomato. Lycopene is not the only anti-oxidant that is naturally present in tomatoes. The long list make tomatoes a "super-food" in reference to lots of different potential heart conditions. Whilst tomatoes may not necessarily lower cholesterol, if you eat them regularly, they can help to prevent LDL cholesterol from sticking to the inside walls of the

Even during the peak growing season it can be difficult to consume four whole tomatoes each day, which is the recommended amount for having a positive impact on blood pressure. Here are some ways to get the benefits of tomatoes without having to eat them straight off the vine.

1. Make Chili. Using tomato puree, which is a concentrated form of tomatoes, as the base for your chili utilizes the antioxidants without the bulk of a whole tomato. Add some ultra-lean and high protein ground bison and kidney beans with minced garlic and onions, and cayenne pepper and you have a heart-healthy main course and a full day's allowance of tomato.

2. Take a leaf out of the Italian's book and eat pasta in a tomato sauce. Use olive oil to fry the onions and garlic, use tomato puree or paste to color the sauce, and use fresh and/or canned tomatoes to flavor and fill the sauce. Using this many tomato ingredients ensures that you will consume far more than the necessary amount of tomatoes and nearly ten times as many nutrients.

3. With any food you can have a side salad, as it does not add many calories. If you have one tomato, whole, sliced, it does not really matter how you eat, just that you do.

4. Drinking your own homemade tomato juice is one of the best ways to cram as many tomatoes as you can into a juicer, making sure that you have a huge dose of the beneficial anti-oxidants.

5. You can buy 200mg tomato supplement tablets. These are good for anybody that does not like the taste of tomatoes but still wants to use them as a medicine. When you take these tablets you are actually taking in more nutrients than you would if you ate the full recommended four tomatoes.

Eating more tomatoes reduces systolic blood pressure by up to 10 points and diastolic blood pressure by up to 4 points. It has definitely become apparent that tomatoes are very, very good for you, however they are prepared.