Cooked tomatoes are healthier than raw tomatoes.
Fresh tomatoes are known for their antioxidant content as well as for their vitamins. If we looked around It would be hard to find a healthier fruit.Most people know that tomatoes as other vegetables and fruits in general are regarded as health food and in most cases integrated in their diets, for their vitamins , fibre ,low calories etc. What they don’t know is that cooked tomatoes are even better than raw ones.
We talked about lycopene in an earlier article and we discovered some of its attributes in the fight against cancer as well as depression.
There is no connection between the red pigmentation of a tomato and its lycopene content. Lycopene is a pigment that has been associated with the red pigment of the tomato. However lycopene from orange coloured tomatoes are better absorbed in the system than red coloured ones.
Therefore in order to find antioxidants in tomatoes we do not necessarily need to choose the red ones.
The antioxidants properties found in lycopene favour bone health. In a research lycopene was removed from a diet in a group of postmenopausal women, the test lasted for four weeks. The study found that this increased the risk of osteoporosis.
There is a growing interest in knowing more about the nutritional quality of the food we buy. Consumer are becoming more conscious and are paying more attention to other factors besides appearance, flavour and price and this is more typical of American and northern European consumers.
Lycopene is one of the most powerful anti-oxidants found and tomatoes contain a lot of it. The nutrient power of a tomato is remarkable and nevertheless what most people ignore is that they may release more nutrients if they are cooked. The substances remain trapped and unexpressed until they reach 100ºC. At this temperature lycopene is released. Below this temperature lycopene remains closed inside cells and does not produce any effect.
There are many varieties of tomatoes and some have more nutrients than others.
Eating tomatoes has been linked to heart health and has shown to help with cholesterol. Other beneficial effects are being discovered and as science advances we are going to find out more about the importance of tomatoes in the diets of our daily lives.