It's now tomato season in our garden, so I wanted to share some fascinating information about tomatoes and lycopene with you!
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As you may know, for many years there’s been information making its way around the health community stating that in order to absorb lycopene from tomatoes one has to cook them.
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The reason why is because red tomato varieties are the most popular and they contain trans-lycopene which needs to be heated to transform into the more easily absorbable cis form of lycopene.
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However, if we look at yellow and orange tomato varieties, we see a different lycopene profile.
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Generally, the most abundant form of lycopene in yellow and orange varieties of tomatoes is tetra-cis-lycopene.
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So, what this means is that yellow and orange varieties of tomatoes can be a great source of the most absorbable form of lycopene without any need for heating!
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And here’s a one to two-serving recipe for tomato sauce that we use on salads and spiralized zucchini and cucumber noodles:
2 medium fresh tomatoes (2 cups chopped)
6 soaked sun dried tomatoes (1 ounce dry or 28.3 g)
½ tsp. dried oregano or other Italian spices (optional)
1 medjool or other type of date
¼ ripe avocado or 1 tsp. chia seeds
Blend fresh tomatoes, spices, date, and avocado or chia seeds in blender, then add soaked sundried tomatoes and blend until smooth. For a lower fat recipe, leave out avocado. Garlic lovers can add 1/8 clove of fresh garlic.
Enjoy!