Eating tomatoes several times a week can halve the risk of depression, according to Chinese and Japanese scientists. Researchers analyzed the dependence of a person’s mental state on the diets that he follows, and found that people who use tomatoes 2 to 6 times in 7 days suffer from depression 46% less than those who eat it less than 1 time per week. Almost 1,000 volunteers took part in this study.
At the same time, scientists note that no other fruit and vegetables, including cabbage, carrots, onions and pumpkin, have such advantages with respect to improving a person’s mental state as a tomato. Experts believe that the beneficial properties of tomatoes are determined by the antioxidants they contain in large quantities, which, in addition to depression, help fight many physiological diseases.
A particularly valuable component of tomato is lycopene, which protects a person from heart attacks, certain types of cancer, and, as it turned out, a depressive state.
According to a team of researchers from Japan and China, the beneficial effect of lycopene is achieved by reducing oxidative stress and the level of damage to healthy brain cells. Experts also added that, apparently, daily consumption of tomatoes can reduce the risk of depression by 52%, but they have not yet been able to figure out whether this indicator will increase with an even more intensive and abundant use of the product in food. So, according to scientists, for effective prevention of depression it is enough for a person to eat at least one tomato per day.
The only caveat ... Russian tomatoes on store shelves should not be expected until May. And in winter only tomatoes grown in unknown places and in questionable ways are sold.
