Cooking red tomatoes. Healthy lycopene is rising

Cook tomatoes more often
When cooking, healthy ingredients of fruit and vegetables are lost in whole or in part. This rule applies to a whole range of "intrinsic values": the sensitive vitamin C and many phytonutrients are destroyed, minerals and water-soluble vitamins are washed out. An exception, however, is the phytochemical lycopene. It is more abundant in tomatoes, especially in its shell, and is the reason why the delicious fruits should be cooked more often.

Like beta-carotene (provitamin A), lycopene belongs to the group of carotenoids, the yellow-red plant pigments. In tomato, lycopene is well ahead in terms of quantity: it accounts for about 90 percent of its total carotenoid content. Numerous studies indicate that lycopene has several health-promoting effects: on the one hand, it has an antioxidant effect, thus reducing aggressive oxygen compounds and thus helping to reduce the risk of cardiovascular diseases and arteriosclerosis. On the other hand, lycopene has anticancer properties. In the early stages of carcinogenesis, it suppresses the transformation of previously damaged cells into cancer cells, potentially preventing the development of certain cancers.

assorted variety tomato

The lycopene is heat stable and remains largely preserved during cooking and gentle processing. At the same time, when heated, the water content of fruits is reduced so dramatically that the proportion of lycopene in heated tomatoes is significantly higher than in raw: 100 grams of tomato puree contain 21.7 milligrams of lycopene, but the same amount of raw tomatoes is only 2.5 milligrams , In addition, the dye is better available from heated fruits. Reason enough to bring variety into the diet and tomatoes more often to cook or even ketchup in the future to produce itself.
Eva Neumann, aid