Food focus: tomatoes

Big, small, green, vine, cherry, beef… Whichever you pick, this ingredient is bursting with benefits!

Tomatoes’ main health benefit is their high antioxidant content, which helps protect our cells and organs from damage.

When it comes to our health, no other system needs antioxidant protection more than the cardiovascular system. Our heart is responsible for transporting the oxygen we breathe in through our lungs around the body. To keep this process in check, we need lots of antioxidants to help protect our cell membranes, from damage from things like stress, pollution and chemicals. If these membranes get damaged then this triggers alarm bells in our immune and inflammatory systems, which is when conditions such as atherosclerosis (the blocking of blood vessels) and thrombosis can start to occur. Any form of exercise, where the need for oxygen is increased, means that we require even more antioxidants.

Lycopene, a key phytonutrient that gives tomatoes their red colour, has received increasing attention over the years and can now even be bought in supplement form. This powerful antioxidant may help prevent osteoporosis and also help lower the risk of certain cancers. Research does suggest that cooked tomatoes may be a better way to get this key nutrient into our diets than by eating raw tomatoes, as it is more readily absorbed by the body.

Tomatoes also contain vitamins A, C and E, as well as manganese and iron. Tomato purée in particular has been found to protect against UVA/UVB damage from the sun, both in the short term and long term. So whatever shape, size, colour or variety of tomato you choose, the more the merrier, we say!

‘Research does suggest that cooked tomatoes – rather than raw – may be a better way to get more lycopene into our diets’