5 Beauty Benefits Of Using Tomatoes

Tomatoes are enriched with a wide spectrum of phytochemicals that can improve your health in different ways. They are considered great for your skin, heart, neurological function, and mental well-being, to name just a few of their health benefits.

Some of the most prized bioactive components of tomatoes include phenolic compounds (such as phenolic acids and flavonoids), carotenoids (such as lycopene and alpha and beta carotenes), vitamins (such as ascorbic acid/vitamin C and vitamin A), and glycoalkaloids (such as tomatine), all of which account for the rich nutritional profile of tomatoes.

Each of these bioactive compounds exhibits different health-enhancing properties. They may work as antioxidant, anti-inflammatory, and anti-atherogenic agents to enhance and protect different aspects of your body function.

# Protect from the sun

Sunlight contains UV radiation, which penetrates deep into the skin to cause significant damage at the cellular level. UV radiation can even destroy the DNA structure of your skin cells and pave the way for skin cancer.

Sun exposure triggers the release of unstable, reactive molecules called free radicals inside the body that attack your healthy tissues, leading to a number of ailments. These free radicals wreak havoc on the skin by breaking down its main structural protein called collagen. This makes your skin less elastic and therefore more prone to premature aging.

# Maintain the health of your gums and teeth

Gum and tooth infections are extremely common, which reflects how poorly many people attend to the needs of their oral cavity.

Your mouth is naturally populated with various strains of bacteria, both good and bad, that live in perfect harmony. The good bacteria keep the bad bacteria in check. But negligent oral hygiene, along with a variety of other factors, can disturb this equilibrium and can trigger the overgrowth of harmful bacteria, giving rise to gum disease and dental decay.

This bacterial overgrowth forms a sticky film called plaque over the gums and teeth. The plaque bacteria feed on the food debris in your mouth and release acidic by-products that erode the underlying tissue and give you a foul breath, characteristic symptoms of gingivitis.

# Prevent premature signs of aging

The skin is made up of several protein fibers, collagen being the most abundant among them. Collagen gives the skin volume to keep it tight, supple, and youthful. However, there is a progressive decline in the production of this structural protein as you grow older.

Lack of collagen makes your skin sag while also diminishing its ability to heal or regenerate itself. Loose skin is more likely to crease and fold, thus forming fine lines and wrinkles. While there is nothing you can do to stop the natural skin aging process, there are things you can do to delay it.

# May lighten your skin tone

As discussed earlier, the color of your skin depends on the amount of melanin present in it. The more melanin, the darker the skin.

Specialized cells called melanocytes found deep within the skin are responsible for producing this pigment. Melanocytes can get anomalously stimulated by solar irradiation or some medical condition, resulting in the overproduction of melanin.

If the excess melanin is produced uniformly, the entire affected skin gets darker. This is how tanning occurs when your bare skin is exposed to solar or artificial radiation (tanning beds) such that all the melanocytes in the targeted area are overactivated and secrete more melanin.

# May clear mild skin and scalp infections

Your skin is the most exposed part of the body, so it naturally collects a lot of dirt and pollutants on a daily basis. Plus, it keeps shedding dead skin cells, which sometimes accumulate on the surface. Add to this, the excess sebum that oozes out of the skin pores and forms a greasy layer over the skin.

If you are negligent about your skin hygiene, these impurities can settle inside the skin pores and clog them. Clogged pores don’t allow your skin to breathe properly, which makes it look dull and lifeless.

The combination of dirt, skin debris, and sebum inside your pores provides fodder to the microbes that naturally live on the skin and trigger their overgrowth. In time, your pores will be colonized by these fungi or bacteria and take the form of a skin infection.