Lycopene-rich tomatoes boost your natural defenses

It is most likely that the tomatoes were first cultivated in the Veracruz region in Mexico. There, it is still possible to find over a hundred different types of tomatoes. Spanish conquistadors brought the tomatoes to Europe and similarly introduced them to other colonies throughout Asia.

At first, these tomatoes were primarily used in our Western countries for decoration, as Europeans erroneously thought that the fruit was poisonous. It was in Italy that peasants adopted tomatoes for cooking purposes. Indeed, tomatoes later became one of the most essential ingredients in the Italian cuisine. When southern Europeans began to immigrate to North America, tomatoes were introduced into their new homes.

Far from being toxic, tomatoes are instead very rich in precious nutrients, especially carotenoids like lycopene. Lycopene is an extremely powerful antioxidant. While the entire tomato contains lycopene, the tomato skin contains three to five times more than the flesh. Consequently, cooking tomatoes along with their skin is the best means of boosting your health.

Cooking your tomatoes is a wonderful way to get the most out of them. In its natural state within the tomato, lycopene exists in a chemical shape called “trans.” This trans-lycopene is, nevertheless, poorly absorbed by our bodies. When cooking the tomato, through the heat the lycopene structure switches from a trans into a cis configuration, which organisms can absorb more easily. In brief, cooking tomatoes releases great amounts of lycopene, thereby increasing its concentration in tomato sauces or pastes.