What are some foods that can offer the same health benefits as tomatoes?
Recently, my mother discovered that she could cut down on her chronic pain by quite a lot by cutting out certain foods, including tomatoes and potatoes as these are members of the nightshade family and are not so good for people with nasty, all-encompassing arthritis like my poor momma. For some reason, I have been consuming an abundance of tomatoes, mostly in the form of tomato juice (it is so delicious) so I decided to look up the health benefits of tomatoes. I have discovered that tomatoes are really good for helping to prevent cancer, diabetes and heart troubles, plus they are excellent for bones, skin and the damage smoking does to the body, which are all things that would greatly benefit my mother. Here are two links which illustrate the health benefits of tomatoes.
So, my question is this: what are some foods that will not exacerbate her arthritis but will offer similar health benefits to tomatoes?
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7 Answers
Olive, garlic and fish oils, lots of water and yoga.
One of the things in tomatoes that is though to possibly provide health benefits is lycopene and you can get that from watermelon and pink grapefruit too.
I miss my nightshades, too…Especially eggplant :(
I agree with @lillycoyote…the other thing I recommend to get the benefits of pain reduction is grapefruit seed and grape seed extracts.
An easy way to think: Go for colors or leafy greens. Most of the brightly colored vegtables and fruits are usually good for nutrients.
Part of the problem with tomatoes, also, is their acidic-ness. I have done a lot of reading in Prevention magazine and Vegetarian times about the so-called super foods. Cherries (especially dried ones) and cranberries and other red fruits and vegetables are supposed to be really good, because some of the compounds in the red color have anti-inflammatory properties. There are also certain spices that are also supposed to be good, for the same reason.
Here is some information about that subject from Dr. Andrew Weil.
Here is some more info on the subject from the Mayo Clinic
Processed foods and meat products are also a culprit in exacerbating pain from inflammation. Here is some more info about that subject on Livestrong.com.
Whatever she decides to do, let me know if you need any recipes for the items that she will be choosing to eat. : )
Thanks, guys, and thanks @KatawaGrey for asking this! I’m looking into this stuff. Gee, good thing I planted all those tomatoes before researching all this!
@JilltheTooth I just leave ‘em for the chipmunks. They usually eat them all up when their nice and ripe. Otherwise, maybe a kindly neighbor would like them
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