Recommended by doctors
This is what happens when you eat a spoonful of tomato paste every day
© photocrew / Adobe Stock
Tomato paste makes you wrinkle-free – at least that’s what dermatologist and nutritionist Yael Adler is convinced of. And we explain why she is on the right track with this.
Tomato paste for a radiant complexion and a strong heart? A slogan that at least we haven’t heard before. But in fact, tomato paste is credited with a whole range of protective effects. Nutritionist and dermatologist Yael Adler, who has emphasized the healthy effects of processed tomatoes more than once in various media, also knows this.
But what exactly makes tomato paste so healthy? Couldn’t you just eat the fruit vegetable instead? We tell you why the food is so good for you and what happens when you treat yourself to a tablespoon a day.
Wrinkle-free thanks to tomato paste
“There are a few favorite foods that I use myself and recommend to my patients, such as a tablespoon of tomato paste every day,” explains the doctor in an interview with SWR 1. The reason: tomato paste contains a lot of the red pigment lycopene – a carotenoid that has an anti-oxidative effect and neutralizes cell stress.
Lycopene is mainly found in the skin of tomatoes and is responsible for their colour. At the same time, the dye is one of the “strongest antioxidants”, confirms Öko-Test. They protect the tomato from free radicals that can arise from harmful environmental influences – including UV radiation from the sun. Thus, lycopene – in appropriate amounts – also provides natural skin protection for humans. Furthermore, the “radical scavenger” should also strengthen the heart and blood vessels.
Adler’s tip: take the tomato paste with a drop of olive oil every day to prevent wrinkles and cell decay.
Why tomato paste has a lot of lycopene
Of course you can eat a lot of tomatoes – or use tomato paste, which contains a lot of lycopene. As Öko-Test explains, this is mainly due to the fact that the tomatoes were able to ripen for a particularly long time during the production of the pulp – in contrast to fresh tomatoes, which are usually plowed unripe in order to be able to survive the long journey to the supermarket and ripen later.
Another advantage of tomato paste: lycopene is only released when heated and can therefore be better absorbed and utilized by humans. Incidentally, the tomato is of course not the only source of the dye: watermelon, grapefruit and papaya, for example, also contain lycopene – but none of them come close to as much as tomato paste: 100 grams contain around 55 milligrams of lycopene, and a grapefruit has just 1.135 milligrams per 100 grams.
Better to prepare the tomato paste yourself
If you buy the seasoning paste ready-made in the store, you should look at the ingredients, because tomato paste often contains an unnecessarily high amount of sugar and salt. As Öko-Test found, every second type of tomato paste tested contains mold toxins – three organic products were particularly badly affected and “questionable pesticides are sometimes a problem in the tomato paste in the test,” says the report.
You can prepare tomato paste yourself with just a few ingredients – you just need to take your time when cooking: Basically, boiled vegetables should be boiled twice – the second heating should take place at least 24 hours after the first. The effort is worth it, not only because of the healthy ingredients, but also because the tomato paste – with correct storage and preparation – can be kept unopened for around 12 months.
Sources used: swr.de, swrfernsehen.de, oekotest.de, geo.de, t-online.de