Not Just Hype, A Tomato is Superfood Times Two

Among the list of the world’s healthiest foods, called superfoods, you’ll find the tomato. Often mistaken for a vegetable, tomatoes are actually a fruit. But because they lack the sweetness of other fruits, they are typically served in salads and with other vegetables.

Tomatoes are generally red, round and soft when ripe. They get their red coloring from lycopene, a powerful antioxidant. It’s because of the lycopene and the vitamins found in tomatoes that they are considered a high-ranking superfood. Scientific evidence backs up some of the health claims attributed to tomatoes partly by demonstrating that there’s no other fruit or vegetable with as much lycopene as a tomato.

Lycopene is such a powerful antioxidant it’s been shown to help prevent several types of cancers, heart disease and help prevent loss of eye sight. Some of the cancers that lycopene may help prevent include: prostate, lung, stomach, pancreas, colon, cervix, breast and more. This is because lycopene can help protect cells from damage that can lead to cancer. It’s not yet known if lycopene works on its own or with other nutrients in tomatoes. But interestingly enough, what we do know is that heating up tomatoes or processing the lycopene into spaghetti or pizza sauce actually makes it more powerful.

Also, thanks to lycopene, eating tomatoes can help keep your heart healthy. It’s thought that lycopene can help prevent the oxidation of LDL cholesterol (the bad cholesterol) thus helping prevent buildup of unhealthy cholesterol and protecting your heart. Lycopene may also help keep blood pressure at healthy levels.

In addition to preventing cancer and helping keep your heart healthy, lycopene found in tomatoes has also been shown to help prevent age-related macular degeneration, which can lead to loss of sight.

“What else is there to a tomato besides lycopene?”, you may ask. Tomatoes also have significant amounts of vitamin A, C, K, potassium and about a gram of fiber for each medium –sized tomato. Here’s why these are so important –

• Vitamin A – important for cell growth
• Vitamin C – important for the immune system, blood pressure and regulating cholesterol levels
• Vitamin K – important for RNA and DNA development and bone health
• Potassium – important to regulate blood pressure
• Fiber – important to maintain healthy digestion and cleansing

So, add some tomatoes to a spinach salad to get all the nutritional benefits of two superfoods. Or pour an extra spoonful of tomato sauce on your next bowl of spaghetti to get an extra helping of tomato’s healthy lycopene and vitamins.