Do tomatoes make you fat or thin: the opinion of nutritionists

Fans of the characteristic smell and juiciness of tomatoes believe that the tomato diet is not only simple and tasty, but also effective. But nutritionists recommend treating this diet with extreme caution. This is because consuming juicy vegetables or tomato juice for a week entails serious challenges for the entire human body. The attractive appearance of almost any dish, as well as great health benefits, can only be provided if tomatoes are included in a person’s balanced diet.

Choosing the right fresh tomatoes

When going to the market or store, everyone wants to bring home only fresh, ripe and tasty vegetables and fruits. But this task is not as simple as it seems at first glance. To make the right choice, experts recommend:

Pay attention to the smell. It should be rich and, of course, pleasant. If the tomatoes smell weak or have no characteristic aroma at all, the fruits were picked too early or stored for too long before selling.
Evaluate appearance. A ripe vegetable has a characteristic color (various shades of red and pink, depending on the variety) and should not be hard, but firm to the touch. If a tomato is “woody” or, conversely, too soft, its taste leaves much to be desired, and the benefits to the body will be minimal. And damaged and rotten fruits, most often contaminated with microbes, are generally harmful to health, so it is safer to avoid them, even if sellers offer a tempting discount.
Look at the stalk. Its appearance is no less important than the tomato itself. The branch should be green and fresh, and if it has already turned yellow and dried out, it means that the tomatoes were removed from the bush a long time ago, and they have already lost most of their beneficial properties.
Cut the fruit. There should be no voids inside a fresh, ripe tomato - only juicy, red pulp and ripe seeds.

To get a quality product, you should not buy tomatoes from unverified sellers who have no idea how to properly grow and store them.

Tomatoes are seasonal vegetables, which means they are tastier and healthier in the summer, in July-August

By the way, you also can’t keep fruits in the refrigerator for too long - at low temperatures they quickly lose not only their taste and smell, but also the lion’s share of their nutrients.

Vitamins contained in tomatoes

B 1 - carries out the metabolism of fats, proteins, carbohydrates, as well as water-salt metabolism.
B 2 - makes the skin more beautiful and healthy. Has a healing effect. Thanks to its work, wounds and cuts heal faster, and the growth of epithelial cells accelerates.
B 5 is an acid that regulates the functioning of growth hormones. Takes part in the restoration of cells and tissues, fat metabolism, and the formation of antibodies.
B 6 - participates in the production of serotonin. Without B 6, the liver and nervous system do not function properly.
B 9 - supports immunity and increases the body's resistance to various viruses.
C - ascorbic acid literally builds cells and also protects the body from infections.
K - forms and restores bone tissue. Synthesizes bone tissue protein. Regulates redox processes, prevents osteoporosis.
N is a catalyst for the skin metabolic process. Regulates external influences on the nervous system.
RR - controls cholesterol levels. Improves the functioning of the gastrointestinal system, taking part in the breakdown. Synthesizes fatty acids.

The benefits of tomatoes

What are the health benefits of eating tomatoes before bed? Thanks to their rich composition, tomatoes have a positive effect on the body:

due to the high content of lycopene, which is considered a powerful antioxidant, they reduce the risk of malignant tumors;
restore normal functioning of the gastrointestinal tract;
improves the cardiovascular system;
improve the condition of patients suffering from atherosclerosis, varicose veins, asthenia and gastritis with low acidity;
strengthen the immune system, slow down the aging process of cells;
have a diuretic, choleretic and mild laxative effect, helping to cleanse the intestines;
accelerate metabolic processes, helping to get rid of excess weight;
promote the removal of waste and toxins;
help in the fight against depression by increasing the level of thiamine and serotonin in the blood;
improve the condition of skin, hair, nails and teeth;
increase the amount of hemoglobin in the blood and get rid of bad cholesterol.

Regular consumption of tomatoes compensates for the deficiency of important vitamins and microelements: A, B, C, E, potassium, calcium, iron, phosphorus, sodium, iodine and magnesium.

Nutritionists recommend eating tomatoes at night for those who want to get rid of a couple of extra pounds. 100 g of these vegetables contain only 30 kcal, and they are 90% water. Therefore, if everything is in order with the digestive system, you can resort to a tomato diet, which involves consuming a large amount of raw vegetables and freshly squeezed juice. To normalize weight and well-being, they should be combined with black bread, cucumbers, boiled buckwheat without salt, rice, as well as steamed fish and cutlets. Due to their high chromium content, tomatoes help suppress appetite, and lycopene ensures rapid breakdown of fat, preventing the appearance of deposits on the hips and waist.

Do tomatoes make you fat?

There is also the question of why people get fat from this vegetable. In this case, the formation of extra pounds does not come from the tomatoes themselves, but from the way they are consumed. That is, mayonnaise or sour cream is used as a dressing for tomato salads or they are fried in oil, during which carcinogens are formed that negatively affect human health.

Eating tomatoes with a huge amount of bread and heavily flavored with spices and salt also contributes to weight gain.

It is these points that can lead to weight gain, and not the tomatoes themselves that provoke this process.

Today, there are a large number of different diets based on this vegetable, which effectively eliminate additional weight and also allow you to maintain the balance of vital elements in the body.

Tomatoes, or “apples of paradise” as they were called in Europe in the Middle Ages, are one of those vegetables (or, more accurately, berries) that are high in nutrients and low in calories. Tomatoes are actively included in a healthy diet, but it is rare to find a mono-diet based on tomatoes.

Is there any harm

When talking about why you shouldn’t eat tomatoes late in the evening, they first of all mention their pronounced diuretic effect. The substances they contain cause the kidneys to work harder, which means a frequent urge to urinate will prevent you from quickly falling asleep and sleeping peacefully until the morning. It is also necessary to remember that:

Tomatoes are a strong allergen, so even in the absence of health problems, adults can consume no more than 300g of these vegetables per day. Abuse of them increases the risk of developing hypervitaminosis, provokes salt deposition, the formation of kidney stones and erosion of tooth enamel.
Tomatoes have a pronounced choleretic effect, so in case of cholelithiasis they can provoke spasms, movement of stones and blockage of ducts.
Patients with osteoporosis, hypertension, diseases of the joints, kidneys and cardiovascular system are not recommended to consume salted or pickled vegetables.
During an exacerbation of pancreatitis or ulcers, as well as with arthrosis and diabetes, eating tomatoes in any form can significantly worsen the patient’s condition.

The combination of tomatoes with baked goods, fried fish, meat and boiled eggs is considered especially harmful. In order not to disrupt the digestion process and not provoke the appearance of fatty deposits, it is better to eat these foods with a break of 2-3 hours.

Tomatoes - harm and contraindications

It's time to find out who tomatoes are contraindicated for consumption and can cause harm to health.

Eat tomatoes with caution if you have gastritis and high stomach acidity, ulcers - especially in the acute stage of the disease.
Tomatoes are contraindicated for gallbladder disease and pancreatitis.
They will harm the body if you have stones in the liver and kidneys, a tendency to form them.
If you have an individual intolerance, avoid tomatoes completely.

Do you want to speed up the ripening of tomatoes? Place them next to ripe specimens and apples.

I have compiled a video about the health benefits and harms of tomatoes. I hope it will be useful. I’m not saying goodbye, we’ll meet again soon, friends, I still have a lot of interesting information that I want to share. With love... Galina Nekrasova.

The benefits and harms of tomatoes

Fresh tomatoes or tomato soup have a lot of useful substances:

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Metabolism improves
Prevents thrombosis
Cleaning off the blood
Removes toxins and impurities
Slow down the aging process
Body swelling is reduced
Improves digestibility of products
Normalize the functioning of muscle tissue
Strengthen the body

Do not forget that drinking tomato juice in large quantities can cause an allergic reaction. Therefore, it is not advisable for allergy sufferers to consume this product in large doses and for people who:

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Increased intestinal acidity
Inflammation of the gastric mucosa
Ureteral diseases
High blood pressure
Diabetes
Pregnancy and feeding

Tomato juice diet

Tomato juice stabilizes the basic metabolic processes in the body, so it easily eliminates the causes of excess weight.
It is best to start the diet in late summer or early autumn, at the height of the tomato season, when they are of excellent quality.

Store-bought juice is not suitable for a diet; consuming it as a main product can be dangerous.

As with all diets, do not consume salt, sugar, flour, smoked or fried foods. Drink up to one and a half liters of clean water per day. This is a quick and effective diet, but abruptly starting it on an unprepared body can lead to starvation.

During the diet, you can drink tea and coffee without sugar, as well as still water:

Day 1: baked or boiled potatoes, a liter of tomato juice.
Day 2: 0.5 kilograms of cottage cheese (low-fat), a liter of tomato juice.
Day 3: a kilogram of apples, a liter of tomato juice.
Day 4: boiled chicken fillet 0.5 kilograms, liter of tomato juice.
Day 5: dates, prunes, dried apricots 0.7 kilograms and a liter of juice.
Day 6: natural yogurt (without additives), a liter of tomato juice.
Day 7: boiled fish 0.5 kilograms, and a liter of tomato juice.

Tomato diet

People who love tomatoes and want to lose weight know that you can eat tomatoes while losing weight. Judging by the calorie content and nutrients, this is an excellent product for a balanced diet. Moreover, many different dishes can be prepared from tomatoes. You can use not only fresh tomatoes, but also marinades, tomato paste and ketchup. Their calorie content per 100 grams is 120 kcal.

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There are many diets involving tomatoes and cherry tomatoes. A slim figure if you follow the rules is guaranteed. Express diets and fasting days are very common in our modern age. Therefore, you should first consider the recipes for some simple and healthy dishes, and then create a weekly diet aimed at losing weight. Every woman who dreams of losing weight will be able to combine the products on the list herself and decide what length of course she needs. It is worth immediately noting that on average, with a tomato diet, you can lose up to 3 kg of weight in 2-3 days.

Emergency tomato diet for 3 days

Menu for three days:

Breakfast: only the whites of two boiled eggs and a large tomato;
Afternoon snack: 2 small slices of cheese (two are enough) and a large tomato;
Lunch: salad of 2 tomatoes, seasoned with kefir or vegetable oil, combined with a small piece of boiled chicken;
For the second afternoon tea: the same as for the first afternoon tea;
Dinner: salad of 1 large tomato, seasoned with fresh herbs (cilantro and dill are ideal), salt, pepper and 2 tablespoons of cottage cheese.

Tomato puree soup

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Tomatoes – 2 pcs.
Green beans – 100 g
Celery – 100 gr
Greenery
Onion
Lemon juice – 1 tsp.

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Pour boiling water over tomatoes and remove skin
Boil the beans
Cut all ingredients and place in a blender
Stir until smooth
Add lemon juice

This puree soup is not only tasty, but also nutritious. 100 grams contain 190 kcal. It will quickly saturate the body and energize it.

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Vegetable stew

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Cherry tomatoes – 200 gr
Pitted olives – 5 pcs.
Greenery
Green peas – 100 gr
Eggplant – 1 piece
Zucchini – 1 piece
Tomato paste – 50 g

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Zucchini and eggplant are peeled, cut into cubes, and stewed for 20 minutes.
To the already prepared zucchini and eggplants, add green peas and cherry tomatoes cut into slices
Simmer all ingredients over low heat for 10 minutes.
Then add olive rings and herbs

You can add some spices and basil. The dish will turn out spicy, in a delicate sauce. In order to reduce the calorie content of the dish, do not stew vegetables in vegetable oil. Dilute tomato paste and simmer in it. 100 grams of food contains 250 kcal.

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Baked tomatoes

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Tomatoes – 2 pcs.
Mushrooms – 100 gr
White beans – 100 gr
Chicken egg – 1 pc.
Greenery
Onion
Garlic
White yogurt – 100 g
Coarse flour - 2 tbsp.

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Boil white beans (before cooking, it is better to soak them overnight in water)
Cut mushrooms, onions, herbs and tomatoes into medium pieces
Place all these ingredients in a baking dish
Add some spices to white yogurt, break a chicken egg, add flour, squeeze out the garlic. Beat everything well with a broom until smooth.
Pour the egg and yoghurt dressing over the vegetables and place in a preheated oven at 150 degrees for 20 minutes.

Let's sum it up

Losing weight and eating tomatoes is easy. The tomato diet is suitable for everyone, except people who have a clear allergy to tomatoes. The diet is designed in such a way that even if a person has stomach problems, a little tomato a day will not hurt. The main thing is to follow the basic rules of any diet:

Vigorous exercise
Ban on eating before bed
If you feel a strong feeling of hunger between meals, stop it with a small sour fruit or a glass of tomato juice.
Drink as much water as possible. Tomatoes will easily remove excess fluid from the body
Try to reduce your salt intake. Never pour out tomato juice. It's better to add a little soy sauce to your food.
Eliminate white bread and any pastry products from your diet. If you really want to treat yourself to something sweet, instead of one of the main dishes, eat creamy ice cream, 20 grams of dark chocolate or make a fruit smoothie with kefir
If there are no contraindications, then you can do a fasting day on tomatoes

Pros and cons of the diet

Tomato is a vegetable that is included in the list of recommended foods for any diet. Since with a low calorie content it has great satiety potential. Tomatoes can replace meals and give you energy.

This type of nutrition is contraindicated for continuous use. The diet is simple, but gives visible results. One or two kg are lost per day. During the day, eat about 1.5 kg of tomatoes. During the diet, exclude salt, sugar, pepper and other spices.

Pros of the diet:

quick and noticeable results without harm to health;
improvement of heart function;
nutrition of the body with vitamins. B and C, carotene;
prevention of ulcers, pancreatitis and gastritis.

Disadvantages of the diet:

loss of fluid and salts;
risk of weight gain;
deterioration of health due to gastritis, poisoning, cholecystitis, ulcers;
You cannot combine tomatoes with saturated proteins - this will upset the digestive system.

Diet menu for 3 days

Sample menu in the table:

Lunch: macaroons with tomatoes, greens.

Lunch: chicken breast, salad with cucumbers and tomatoes.

Lunch: salad with spaghetti and tomatoes, pumpkin with dressing.

Fasting day on tomatoes

During the day, you are allowed to eat about one and a half kilograms of raw and fresh tomatoes. Such a fasting day should be arranged no more often than once every seven days. Sugar, salt and other seasonings are not allowed.

An additional condition will be to absorb plenty of water (about one and a half liters during the day). This day should be freed from heavy physical and mental stress, as loss of energy leads to increased appetite.

Example of a fasting day menu:

Breakfast - tomato puree.
Lunch : tomato juice.
Lunch - tomato puree soup.
Afternoon snack - tomato juice.
Dinner - salad with tomatoes.
Before bed - tomato juice.

Is it possible to lose weight on tomatoes?

In Russia, such an agricultural crop as the tomato was recognized only in the second half of the 18th century. But due to their undoubted benefits and unique taste, tomatoes gained popularity in a short period of time and people began to wonder why they didn’t learn about tomatoes earlier.

In addition to the fact that the culture acts as a generous source of fiber, it contains the following nutritional elements:

potassium and phosphorus;
vitamins C and B;
organic acids;
magnesium;
choline, which is necessary for blood circulation and healthy liver.

The unique qualities of the vegetable led to people beginning to wonder whether tomatoes make them fat or thin, and nutritionists invented a special diet based on tomatoes. According to the regulations, a person who wants to lose weight should drink tomato juice and feast on the pulp of the juicy vegetable.

But it is worth noting that the diet called “Lose weight on tomatoes” is not suitable for every person. Due to the fact that the acids in tomatoes are very concentrated, they are not allowed to be consumed by people with chronic diseases of the urinary and digestive systems. Before resorting to the method of losing weight using tomatoes, you must first consult with an experienced specialist.

Due to the lack of calories, unusual consistency and taste of tomato juice (which is considered the main dish of the tomato diet), it is not only a refreshing drink, but also a vegetable snack. Due to the fact that the juice is quite thick, it helps saturate the body while maintaining the benefits that are characteristic of the vegetable.

Attention! If you regularly consume tomato juice, it is not recommended to overuse salt. If you ignore this remark, the result of the diet will not be the expected slimness, but bags under the eyes and swelling in the legs.

What are the benefits of tomatoes in a diet?

Correctly following the recommendations developed for the tomato diet allows you to lose weight and maintain health. A strong body, a refined figure and healthy skin can be achieved by following a balanced diet, the basis of which is tomatoes.

Low calorie content (19 kcal). The good thing about the tomato diet is that it saves a person from eating high-calorie foods and allows them to eat a variety of tasty dishes, the main ingredient of which is tomatoes.
The vegetable contains a rich vitamin and mineral complex. Regular consumption of tomatoes increases the body's resistance. Citric acid and iron prevent anemia, fight fatigue, and strengthen blood vessels.
A tomato diet develops the body's resistance to oxidative stress. Tomatoes are rich in lycopene, a powerful antioxidant that prevents cardiovascular and cancer diseases, as well as inflammatory reactions.
Tomatoes are enriched with fiber, which absorbs excess fat in the intestines, so its absorption by the body is reduced.
If you eat tomatoes before your main meal, they, by preventing the body from absorbing fats, stimulate the fat burning process.
In addition, the tomato diet saturates the body with lycopenes, providing cancer prevention.
Tomatoes thin the blood and cleanse blood vessels and intestines, removing toxins. They are very useful for impaired metabolism.
Including tomatoes in your diet improves skin strength and elasticity. Thanks to their consumption, you get an even and safe tan.
Potassium, which enriches the mineral composition of tomatoes, has a beneficial effect on the functioning of the heart, and magnesium relieves inflammatory processes and strengthens the nervous system (especially pink fruits with loose pulp, enriched with vitamin B1), and fights depression.

In a word, the question of how tomatoes are useful for a diet disappears; a tomato diet for weight loss is an excellent remedy that brings a person into tone and allows him to look better than before.

Tomatoes for weight loss - benefits and harms

Like many other food products, tomato juice and tomatoes in general have harmful and beneficial qualities for the body. Since the peel of the vegetable contains healing chemical compounds, tomatoes should be consumed whole.

The list of beneficial properties of tomatoes for the human body includes:

reduction of the inflammatory process;
strengthening the heart due to potassium, as well as reducing the risk of developing diseases of the cardiovascular system;
cleansing the body of toxins, removing tars and heavy metals from the lungs, which is important for heavy smokers;
fighting depression, improving emotional background due to the fact that tyramine in the human body is converted into serotonin;
prevention of neurological pathologies and Alzheimer's disease.

Important! To achieve maximum benefits from the tomato diet, without causing harm to the body, you must limit your daily consumption of tomatoes to no more than 300 g per day.

Without a doubt, the tomato has great value compared to other vegetable crops. But experienced doctors and nutritionists recommend paying attention not only to the beneficial, but also to the harmful qualities that distinguish tomatoes.

What delicious things can be prepared from tomatoes: recipes

Scientists have proven the benefits of tomatoes for human health. Often the cause of excess weight is impaired digestion. The familiar and simple dietary product tomato helps improve the functioning of the body and lose weight, but to get results, you should familiarize yourself with the peculiarities of the effect of tomatoes on the human body when losing weight.

Is it possible to eat tomatoes at night while losing weight?

At least once a week you need to have a fasting day, including tomato juice and fresh tomatoes in your diet. The menu should consist of 4 full meals, and be sure to drink at least 2 liters of water, because tomatoes quickly remove fluid from the body, and therefore it is necessary to replenish its reserves.

Before starting a tomato diet, it is recommended to purchase 2 kg of fresh vegetables, and if necessary, you can add an additional day (for a total of 2 days). Experienced nutritionists say that it is best to “unload” the body on weekends (when you can independently plan your daily routine), but it is possible to set aside any weekday of the week for this procedure.

This will prevent nervousness when you feel hungry and will reduce the development of increased appetite. The result of such fasting days will be a loss of body weight - from 1.5 to 2 extra kilograms.

The tomato diet is necessary in order to allow the body and digestive system to take a break from foods that are eaten daily. Toxins and waste are removed from the body, which, in turn, improves metabolism.

Attention! Before the “tomato fast,” the amount of food consumed should be reduced, and for dinner, give preference to apples with kefir or porridge.

Before eating vegetables, you should read the information regarding whether you can eat tomatoes in the evening while losing weight. You should not eat tomatoes at bedtime, especially for people with chronic kidney disease. It is also not recommended to eat this vegetable for breakfast, since tannic acid increases the acidity of the stomach, which can lead to gastritis.

Recipes for proper nutrition

During the tomato diet, it is not necessary to only eat raw vegetables. There are many interesting and tasty recipes.

Soup

According to experts, boiled tomatoes are the most beneficial.

Ingredients: onions, garlic, tomatoes, olive oil and spices, herbs.

Vegetables need to be washed and peeled. Onions and garlic should be pre-fried until golden brown. Then mix all the ingredients and simmer. After this, spices and tomato paste are added to the mixture. Everything is stewed and whipped with a blender. The resulting paste must be diluted with boiled water and brought to a boil.

Cottage cheese with tomato

Ingredients: cottage cheese, tomatoes, herbs, spices, low-fat yogurt.

Mix cottage cheese with finely chopped herbs and grind with dressing. Then cut the tomatoes into thin slices. Spread the curd mixture onto tomato toast.

Salad

Ingredients: tomatoes, cucumbers, herbs, sweet bell peppers, lemon juice, spices.

Vegetables need to be cut into strips or cubes. Then chop the greens. Make the sauce: beat lemon juice with spices in a blender. Now you can mix all the ingredients and season the salad.

If the dish seems too filling, then you can bite it with black bread or toast.

Celery + tomato

This salad is similar to the previous one. Cucumbers can be added at your discretion. The second main ingredient is celery. They can replace almost all the greens in a salad. You can add crushed nuts, pine nuts or sesame seeds to the recipe.

Buckwheat porridge with tomatoes

These are the two most dietary products. Buckwheat provides the body with iron and carbohydrates. Porridge should be cooked without sugar, salt and oil. You can eat only buckwheat and tomatoes for no more than a couple of weeks. You should drink water, teas and low-fat kefir or yogurt.

How many kilos can you lose?

It is worth noting that tomatoes are absolutely harmless for your figure, since the number of calories in this vegetable is kept to a minimum. 100 g of product contains no more than 30 kcal, and it consists of 90% water.

Fat in the body is broken down using the coloring pigment lycopene, which is also important when losing weight. Chromium contained in tomato juice helps suppress appetite, and if you do not consume fatty sour cream, mayonnaise and other harmful products during the tomato diet, then you can say goodbye to extra pounds in a short period of time.

In order to become the owner of a slim waist, you need to drink from 150 to 250 ml of tomato juice per day. But experts strongly recommend in general not to eat sweet, fried, salty, fatty foods, and to eat more fresh vegetables and fruits, lean meat and low-fat cottage cheese.

Potatoes: you can eat them, but...

“To eat or not to eat?” — women who are losing weight constantly ask this question. If you cook potatoes without oil, they are a fairly low-calorie product: 80 kcal per 100 g. The main problem is that in our country, potatoes are often fried in so much lard and oil that it’s even scary to count calories.

And the puree is usually turned into a “potato shake” with egg, butter, milk or cream. In this form, the glycemic index of the product is higher than that of jacket potatoes or baked in foil. Be sure to eat potatoes, they have a lot of vitamin C, but just cook them correctly. If you make mashed potatoes, use the water in which the potatoes were boiled, and at the end of cooking, add a small amount of oil.