Eating too many tomatoes is bad for you — FaceGalvanic

Face Galvanic
4 min readFeb 7, 2022

There’s a reason why the old saying goes an apple a day keeps the doctor away. In general, eating more fruits and vegetables can be good for your health, and eating too many tomatoes may not be as good for you as you think. Find out why eating too many tomatoes may be bad for you in this article!

While tomatoes are low in calories and fat-free, they’re not calorie-free. Their high water content can fill your stomach and may contribute to weight gain over time. However, their other nutrients make them a healthy part of a balanced diet. These include vitamins A and C, potassium, manganese and lycopene.

While lycopene appears to protect against certain cancers-particularly prostate cancer-the research isn’t conclusive yet. If you want to enjoy its health benefits, it’s best to eat them in moderation along with other fruits and vegetables.

The same goes for any fruit or vegetable that contains nutrients your body needs but also comes with calories or other nutrients that could cause weight gain over time if consumed in excess amounts.

Risks of Tomato Overdose

Tomato overdose is a very real threat but can be easily avoided. To avoid tomato overdose, keep your daily intake of tomatoes between 1 and 5 servings. Consuming more than five servings per day will increase your risk of developing symptoms caused by tomato overdose.

If you believe that you are experiencing symptoms of a tomato overdose, visit your local health care provider to have it diagnosed and treated.

How Many Tomatoes Should You Eat?

A common question among people who are trying to lose weight, eat healthier or consume fewer calories at mealtime is: How many tomatoes can I eat without harming my diet? Unfortunately, that’s a very difficult question to answer. The reason it’s so hard is? Tomatoes are a very nutrient-dense food.

They’re rich in vitamins, antioxidants and fiber. Plus, they taste delicious and can be used in almost any meal. For most adults and children, eating more isn’t necessarily better; it could actually be worse.

Worst Foods That Contain Tomatoes

Tomatoes are known to be very healthy, they have tons of antioxidants which can help lower your blood pressure and cholesterol. It’s recommended that you eat them at least 3 times a week but there are some fruits and vegetables that aren’t as good for us when we consume large amounts of them.

The following fruits and vegetables have too much sugar so it’s best to eat them in moderation: Tomatoes, Pineapple, Mangos, Peaches, Nectarines and Plums.

Acid Reflux

Tomatoes are acidic, and eating too many of them can cause acid reflux (acid indigestion). When people eat a lot of acidy foods, their stomach becomes very acidic.

The stomach has to work hard to digest it, which creates pressure in order to get rid of everything in there. This pressure then leads to heartburn, which is often mistaken as an ulcer.

If you’re sensitive or prone to acid reflux disease (GERD), it’s best to avoid acidic foods like tomatoes, citrus fruits, soda or spicy food altogether. You might also want to stay away from peppermint and caffeinated drinks because they stimulate digestion and may make your GERD worse.

Kidney Related Issues

A lot of people eat tomatoes like its fruit, and so they wonder if eating more than two or three whole ones at a time is bad for them. The answer is no, it’s not.

Tomatoes are in fact good for you, but only if eaten in moderation (aka one or two). If your meal contains multiple tomatoes, then that’s when things can get dicey. They contain high amounts of a mineral called oxalate which can interfere with healthy kidney function.

This isn’t to say that eating tomatoes will immediately cause kidney problems but they do increase your risk factor by a large margin so be mindful of what you put into your body (because oxalate also shows up in spinach and rhubarb as well).

Allergies And Infection

Tomatoes are part of a larger category of foods known as nightshades, which also includes peppers, potatoes, eggplants and goji berries.

Many people with nightshade allergies experience mild skin irritation (blisters) when they come into contact with nightshade fruits or vegetables, but some experience more serious allergic reactions. And if you already have an allergy to a food in your diet, then eating that food might trigger another reaction because of something called cross-reactivity.

Cross-reactivity occurs when your immune system has already identified one type of protein and reacts similarly to other proteins that share similar traits. To stay safe from allergy complications, it’s important to consult with your doctor before adding new foods to your diet.

Diarrhoea

Tomatoes are high in fibre and water content, which may cause them to be a bit more difficult to digest. That could lead to excess production of stomach acid that may irritate your digestive tract and cause diarrhoea.

If you’re eating a lot of other fiber-rich foods-including veggies, fruits, legumes, nuts and whole grains-along with a moderate amount of tomatoes, diarrhoea shouldn’t be an issue.

But overdoing it on any one food can lead to constipation or diarrhoea; so if you are going to eat lots of one thing (like tomatoes), just make sure there’s a good balance in your diet.

Conclusion

So to sum it up, eating tomatoes is good for your health, but not so much if you eat too many. And that’s one of the beauties of life-there are no hard and fast rules, only guidelines. Enjoy your tomato slices on a sandwich with some cheese and avocado or as part of an Italian meal with rice and pasta. Just don’t go overboard!

Originally published at https://facegalvanic.com on February 7, 2022.

--

--

Face Galvanic

face Galvanic is a health and fitness tips-related website. To reading more please visit https://facegalvanic.com/