Whether you toss them into a salad, stir a tin of chopped ones into a sauce or roast a trays-worth with a sprinkle of sea salt, the humble tomato truly can do it all.

But they’re not just prized for their flavour: according to a new study, eating tomatoes could help to lower high blood pressure and perhaps even prevent it from rising in the first place.

The new research, published in the European Journal Of Preventative Cardiology, was part of a wider study looking at how the Mediterranean diet could make a difference to the health outcomes of older people. Over three years, 7,056 participants between the ages of 55 and 80 – 82.5% of whom already had high blood pressure – were monitored and asked various questions about their diet.

Why eating tomatoes could be the key to reducing – and perhaps even preventing – high blood pressure