Drinking a tasty fruit juice every day could slash potentially dangerous blood pressure levels, a study has shown. High blood pressure, which is also known as hypertension, is a condition that means your heart has to work harder than usual to pump blood around your body.
This puts extra pressure on the heart, blood vessels and other organs over time. If not treated it can have serious consequences, with high blood pressure linked to medical emergencies such as strokes and heart attacks.
It is thought around one in three people in the UK are living with hypertension, although many may not realise. This is because it is often symptomless and needs to be tested to be confirmed.
There are several factors that could cause you to have high blood pressure, diet being one of them. Foods high in salt should definitely be avoided for this reason – as salt helps the body to hold on to water, driving the blood pressure up.
However, what you eat and drink could also have the opposite effect. One study, published in Food Science and Nutrition journal in 2019, recommended drinking a 12p fruit juice daily for this reason.
Researchers from Tokyo, Japan, discovered that consuming unsalted tomato juice every day could significantly lower your blood pressure. It was also found to reduce “bad” cholesterol, another contributing factor in heart problems.
As part of the study, a total of 481 people enrolled and were provided with as much tomato juice as they wanted throughout the course of a year. They were screened for cardiovascular risk markers, such as blood pressure, serum lipid profile, and glucose tolerance, before and after the study period.
Among those with hypertension or prehypertension, blood pressure levels were “significantly lowered”. The average daily tomato juice consumption was between 215 and 84 ml but most of the study participants consumed about one bottle (200 ml).
Study authors wrote: “Blood pressure (BP) in 94 participants with untreated prehypertension or hypertension was significantly lowered. Further, the serum low‐density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL‐C) level in 125 participants with untreated dyslipidemia significantly decreased.
“These beneficial effects were not different between sexes and among the different age groups. No significant difference in lifestyle was found before and after the study. Unsalted tomato juice intake improved systolic and diastolic BP and serum LDL‐C level in local Japanese residents at risk of cardiovascular conditions.”
The team hypothesised that the reduction in blood pressure could be linked to an antioxidant, known as lycopene, found in tomatoes.
“Tomatoes contain a variety of bioactive components that make them and their products, including tomato juice, beneficial for health,” they said. “Above all, lycopene is well known for its strong antioxidant activity and the inhibition of low-density lipoprotein oxidation, which plays a key role in the initiation and development of atherosclerosis.
“Several epidemiological studies have suggested that lycopene could contribute to the prevention of atherosclerosis and cardiovascular diseases.”
Tomato juice can be bought from most supermarkets in the UK, including Asda where a one litre carton costs £1.20 – or the equivalent of about 12p a serving.
According to the NHS, if you’re under 80 years of age, you’re usually considered to have high blood pressure if your reading is either:
- 140/90 or higher when checked by a healthcare professional
- 135/85 or higher when checked at home.
If you’re aged 80 or over, you’re usually considered to have high blood pressure if your reading is either:
- 150/90 or higher when checked by a healthcare professional
- 145/85 or higher when checked at home.
If you are concerned about your blood pressure you should speak to your GP.