Surprising Benefits of Cooking Tomatoes (The Lycopene Secret)

Did you know that consuming tomatoes cooked is in fact healthier than eating them raw?

Here’s why:

Cooking tomatoes increases the bioavailability of lycopene, a bright red carotenoid, which is a powerful antioxidant. Lycopene is what gives tomatoes, watermelon and papaya their bright red color.

Lycopene can help to prevent cancer growth, and supports your health, brain, and bone health by protecting the cells from damage. Currently, Americans get about 85% of their lycopene from tomatoes or tomato-based products according to the National Institute of Health.

While eating tomatoes raw still provides lycopene, heating it with a fat source helps it turn into a more easily absorbable and usable form. This is because of the shape of the lycopene molecule: Lycopene in red tomatoes exists in a straight or trans isomer structure, while in the human body, it’s in a bent form called cis isomers. By heating the tomatoes up, the molecules will change shape from straight to bent form. Lycopene is also a fat soluble nutrient, and so it needs some fats for the body to readily absorb it, which is why cooking tomatoes for a long period of time, such as in tomato sauces or soups, is a great way to increase the amount of lycopene in one’s diet.