Why are they better for your health?

Tomatoes are the French's favorite fruit vegetable. Rich in water, low in calories, a source of dietary fiber, it is found in many dishes and preparations, from pizza to gazpacho, “banana tomato” salad to stuffed tomatoes.

Eating tomatoes is good for your health, especially thanks to its benefits for the immune system. For example, tomatoes have been shown to be antiangiogenic, meaning they prevent unwanted growth of new blood vessels, especially in cases of cancer.

Tomatoes also have a known protective effect against prostate cancer, and this has been proven by more than thirty scientific studies so far.

Among these studies is a study from Harvard University⁽¹⁾ Consumption lesson tomatoes In 46,719 men, they found that eating 2 to 3 servings of tomato sauce weekly was associated with a 30% lower risk of prostate cancer.

In addition, among the men who developed prostate cancer, those who ate more tomato sauce had less vascularized and less aggressive cancers.

Tomatoes also have benefits for the immune system thanks to their high vitamin C content. In fact, if we generally associate vitamin C with citrus fruits like oranges, limes and lemons, cherry tomatoes also contain a lot of it.

However, if we had to pick one beneficial ingredient in tomatoes, it would undoubtedly be it LycopeneIts content is higher in tomatoes with dark red and black skin.

What is lycopene?

Lycopene is an antioxidant Responsible for the anti-angiogenic effects of tomatoes. In uncooked tomatoes, lycopene is found in a specific form called “cis-lycopene.”

This form is difficult for the body to absorb, so raw tomatoes provide less absorbable lycopene.

The best way to eat tomatoes, the stars of the Mediterranean diet, is to cook them first in olive oil.

In fact, under the influence of heat, “cis-lycopene” turns into “trans-lycopene”, which is much easier to absorb by the body.⁽²⁾. Since lycopene is fat-soluble, combining it with olive oil increases its absorption even further.

Benefits of lycopene

Lycopene, that A red pigment from the carotenoids familyfound particularly in tomatoes, is known for its powerful antioxidant capabilities, but it also contains many bioactive qualities.

Among them, there is particularly the modification of intercellular gap junctions, the hormonal and immune systems, metabolic pathways and the regulation of some body enzymes. detoxification^(3)(4)(5)(6).

Lycopene also improves fatty liver Non-alcoholic liver disease (also called fatty liver disease), a condition linked to the global epidemic of obesity and diabetes⁽⁷⁾⁽⁸⁾.

In 2019, a first study also reported on lycopene's prebiotic potential⁽⁹⁾. In the experiment, the researchers showed that lycopene proportionally increased the numbers of some good bacteria in the gut microbiota: Bifidobacterium teensis and Bifidobacterium longum (among others).

Anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer effects

As mentioned at the beginning of the article, lycopene is particularly beneficial for the prostate, but that's not all.

In fact, studies have highlighted the anti-inflammatory role that lycopene plays in relation to certain types of diseases and cancers, especially those affecting the liver, lungs and colon.^(10)(11).

What foods are rich in lycopene?

Other beneficial elements in tomatoes

Although tomatoes are best known for their lycopene, they are also a valuable source of other micronutrients and phytochemicals, including carotenoids, polyphenols, potassium, folate, ascorbic acid, and alpha-tocopherol.

Benefits for cardiovascular health

In all of these phytochemicals, Foreman et al.⁽¹²⁾ He discovered that tomato oil (the fat extract of tomatoes) has an extremely powerful antioxidant power on low-density lipoproteins (LDL), the bad cholesterol that clogs the arteries and increases the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

What to remember

Tomatoes are a nutritional treasure thanks to lycopene, a powerful antioxidant with anti-cancer properties. Since the body absorbs lycopene more easily after heating it, we prefer to eat cooked tomatoes, whether in the form of tomato sauce, tomato paste, or ketchup.