A healthy diet can promote normal blood pressure and lower your risk for heart disease, stroke, kidney disease and congestive heart failure. Raw and cooked tomatoes provide nutrients that may lower your blood pressure or prevent it from increasing, and you may want to consider including them in your regular diet. A nutritionist can work with you to develop a healthy diet for lowering your blood pressure.
Recommendations
Add tomatoes to your diet to increase your intake of vegetables to levels recommended in the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension, or DASH, diet. This diet may help you control your blood pressure, and individuals on a 2,000-calorie diet should aim for four to five servings of vegetables per day, according to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. You can eat your tomatoes raw or you can cook them, or you can use tomato sauce, paste or juice.
Potassium
A benefit of tomatoes for your blood pressure is that they are rich in potassium, with 427 mg in a cup of raw tomatoes, 405 mg in a 1/2 cup of tomato sauce, and 556 mg in 1 cup of tomato juice. A high-potassium diet may support healthy blood pressure, and healthy adults should get at least 4,700 mg per day, according to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines.
Sodium
A high-sodium diet leads to high blood pressure, or it may prevent you from lowering your blood pressure if you already have hypertension. Tomatoes are healthy because they are naturally low in sodium, with only 9 mg in a cup of raw tomatoes. Healthy adults should have no more than 2,300 mg sodium per day, and individuals with high blood pressure should have no more than 1,500 mg per day, according to the 2010 Dietary Guidelines. Prepare or cook your tomatoes without adding salt, and purchase low-sodium brands of tomato products, such as juice, paste or sauce.
Considerations
Raw tomatoes provide 2.2 g of dietary fiber in 1 cup, and a high-fiber diet may promote healthy blood pressure, according to the Linus Pauling Institute. Raw or cooked tomatoes have only about 25 to 45 calories per cup, and they can help you regulate your total calorie intake to control your weight. Obesity increases your risk for high blood pressure. Keep in mind that no single food determines your blood pressure, and tomatoes alone do not provide adequate nutrients for maintaining healthy blood pressure. The DASH diet recommends plenty of fruits, lean proteins, whole grains, beans and reduced-fat dairy products, in addition to a variety of vegetables.
References
- U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Department of Health and Human Services; Dietary Guidelines for Americans, 2010; January 2010
- U.S. Department of Agriculture: National Nutrient Database for Standard Reference: Vegetables and Vegetable Products
- Linus Pauling Institute, Oregon State University; Dietary Fiber; Jane Higdon, Ph.D., et al.; August 2009
