Honestly, we love sweet red tomatoes, whether raw or cooked. No one seems interested in the green, immature tomatoes. But did you know there are 9 health benefits of green tomatoes you could be missing? Here’s what you should know.
It is healthy to eat green tomatoes. Raw green tomatoes are good for skin health, weight loss, heart health, decreasing cholesterol, and preventing constipation. Though red tomatoes have more health benefits than green ones, green tomatoes have more fiber and protein than red tomatoes.
Ready to eat green tomatoes? Read on. I’ll share all their health benefits.
What Are Green Tomatoes?
Unlike the green zebra tomatoes that are green even when ripe, green tomatoes are unripe tomatoes. These are the green tomatoes you see on farms after summer temperatures have gone low, have hard skin and are not as juicy as the red or green zebra tomatoes.
Featuring a robust texture, these green tomatoes have a sour taste and a zingy flavor.
Health Benefits Of Green Tomatoes
Many people only think about the health benefits of red tomatoes and hot sauces, but not green tomatoes.
Once you know the health benefits of green tomatoes, you’ll never throw them again. These health benefits include:
Boosting Heart Health
Green tomatoes contain dietary fiber. It lowers low-density lipoprotein in the body. Consequently, the total level of blood cholesterol goes down. Dieticians recommend eating 30 to 38 grams (men) and 21 to 25 grams (women) of fiber a day.
One sizeable green tomato should give you at least 2 grams of fiber. So, eat green tomatoes, moving forward, to add to your daily fiber intake.
Green tomatoes are also tomatine-rich, glycoalkaloid, which helps protect your heart from diseases. Besides, dietary fiber also lowers blood pressure, inflammation, and other heart diseases.
The glycoalkaloid in green tomatoes makes them cardioprotective because they’re tomatine-rich.
Helps In The Absorption Of Nutrients
Green tomatoes help in the absorption of nutrients, mostly non-heme iron. If you love eating leafy greens rich in iron, you might also want to eat green tomatoes to help in their absorption.
When your body absorbs nutrients well, it uses what it needs and stores the rest. These processes are vital in ensuring that you’re healthy.
Strong Bones And Blood Clotting
According to Harvard University, you need Vitamin K for blood clotting. Vitamin K is also essential for strong bones. Osteocalcin helps in the production of healthy bones. It needs Vitamin K for the production task. Prothrombin is another protein essential in coagulation (blood clotting), but it also needs vitamin K to clot.
Therefore, when you eat green tomatoes, the density of your bones increases, and coagulation eases.
Improves Skin Health
Do you want healthy, glowing skin? One of the health benefits of green tomatoes that every young woman should enjoy is healthy, young skin. The beta carotene in green tomatoes is responsible for healthy skin for women and everyone who eats green tomatoes.
The beta-carotene in green tomatoes converts into retinol (Vitamin A), making your skin healthy. When your skin is healthy, it’s free from premature aging due to the constant regeneration of skin cells.
Good Eye-Sight
Thank God you can read this because your eyes can see it! However, your eyes need beta carotene, which is also responsible for good skin health. It’s beta carotene that is essential in the production of vitamin A, which is vital for the health of your eyes.
Without beta carotene, your body wouldn’t produce healthy blood cells essential for healthy eyesight.
A medium tomato gives you about 790 units of vitamin A helpful in beta-carotene production. Consequently, blindness that results from cancer and macular degeneration caused by age is ineffective due to beta-carotene. Even the Holy Bible agrees that the entire body is full of darkness if your eyes are bad.
By the way, there are so many ways of eating green tomatoes. Have you checked our green tomato recipes for ideas? You should!
Why should you not rip at least some of these essential health benefits of green tomatoes starting today?
Prevention Of Constipation
If you have not had a constipation problem, ask me, and I’ll tell you how near to death it can make one be! You don’t have to get there, though. Eating green tomatoes is a great way to prevent constipation because they’re fiber-rich.
Despite increasing the weight of your stool, fiber also increases its size and softens it. When your stool becomes bulky, passing it becomes effortless. The health benefits of green tomatoes are found in the skin and seeds. So eat the whole tomato without throwing away the green skin.
Helps With Excessive Body Weight
When your body digests food well, it’s easy to maintain a healthy weight. Therefore, besides doing beginner and expert upper body workouts to lose weight, please eat your green tomatoes to help retain a healthy weight.
Prevention Of Inflammation
The flavonoids in green tomatoes benefit your body by protecting it from free radicals. According to the National Institutes of Health, free radicals cause cell damage and disrupt homeostasis when they attack key macromolecules in your body.
Besides, flavonoids are great for the prevention of cancer. Flavonoids also possess antiviral, anti-inflammatory, and antioxidant properties, key health benefits of green tomatoes.
So, just by eating one or two green tomatoes a day, you could keep killer diseases away.
Immunity Booster
A body with high immunity can help keep diseases away even for a year! You read that right. Probably all you need is that green, immature tomato! Green tomatoes are rich in Vitamin C, which helps protect the cells and ensure they’re healthy.
When you take your green tomatoes, rich in vitamin C and cold pineapple juice, your body effectively fights illnesses such as colds and flues.
Aside from protecting your skin health and helping your bones stay strong, Vitamin C also helps in the fast healing of wounds.
Parting Shot
As we’ve seen, the health benefits of green tomatoes are numerous. They include boosting skin health, good eyesight, and preventing constipation. Green tomatoes also help in blood clotting and the formation of strong bones.
There’s also better nutrient absorption and prevention of excessive body weight when you eat green tomatoes. Your heart health will also thank you.
What’s your experience with green tomatoes? Have you eaten them in the past?