Drinking tomato juice regularly could reduce your risk of heart disease, a new study reveals.
The study, published in Food Science & Nutrition, found that unsalted tomato juice can reduce blood pressure and cholesterol in people at risk of heart disease.
For the study, the researchers recruited 184 men and 297 women as participants and they were provided with as much unsalted tomato juice as they wanted for a whole year.
At the end of the study, they analysed data from the 94 participants with untreated prehypertension or hypertension and found their blood pressure dropped significantly.
“To the best of our knowledge, the current study is the first to investigate the effects of tomato or tomato product intake on cardiovascular disease risk markers over the course of a year and over a wide age range,” the authors wrote.
Heart disease is a major cause of death in Australia. According to the Heart Foundation, every 12 minutes an Australian dies from heart, stroke or blood vessel disease.
Meanwhile, it comes after a study published in medical journal JAMA found eating three or more eggs a week increases the chance of developing a heart disease, putting many people’s lives at risk.
Researchers from Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine in Chicago discovered the link between the two while analysing data from six US study groups which included more than 29,000 people.
The study participants’ eating habits were followed for on average 17 and a half years with shocking results revealing just how harmful the food can be.
Alarmingly a total of 5,400 cardiovascular events occurred during that time period, with 1,302 fatal and non-fatal strokes, 1,897 incidents of fatal and non-fatal heart failure and 113 other heart disease deaths.
It was discovered eating an additional 300mg of dietary cholesterol per day was associated with a 3.2 per cent higher risk of cardio vascular disease and a 4.4 per cent higher risk of early death. Whereas consuming an additional half egg per day was associated with 1.1 per cent higher risk of the disease.