{"id":22595,"date":"2021-04-08T20:21:52","date_gmt":"2021-04-08T20:21:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.boredmom.com\/?p=22595"},"modified":"2025-08-14T20:06:23","modified_gmt":"2025-08-14T20:06:23","slug":"hey-why-are-tomatoes-red","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stage.boredmom.com\/?p=22595","title":{"rendered":"Hey, Why Are Tomatoes Red?"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>You may not be familiar with\u00a0<strong><em>lycopene<\/em><\/strong>, but she\u2019s one antioxidant that deserves some stage time. Let\u2019s start with Act One and familiarize ourselves with this leading lady of the carotenoid clan. She\u2019s feisty, she\u2019s fierce, and she will paint this town red. At the surface, lycopene is an antioxidant who shows up in all your favorite red-pink fruits: watermelon, grapefruit, papaya, and of course, tomatoes. But unlike her green and orange antioxidant cousins, lycopene can really stand up to heat and only gets stronger when the pressure is on.<!--more--><\/p>\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0244\/9702\/9184\/files\/lycopene_inpost_1_480x480.jpg?v=1616770200\" alt=\"\" \/><\/div>\n<div>\n<div>When trouble-causing free radicals come to town and everyone finds themselves in a state of oxidative stress, lycopene is there to balance things out and protect you from havoc-wreaking chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, and Alzheimer\u2019s. If environmental toxins like pesticides and herbicides are lurking, word on the street is that lycopene can protect you from those, too.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>\n<p>Now on to Act Two, where this nutrient headliner shows us just how amazing she is and wins over our hearts forever.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<h2><strong>6 amazing facts about lycopene<\/strong><\/h2>\n<div><\/div>\n<div>Learn why lycopene is tomato\u2019s best supporting actress, even commanding the spotlight when things get heated.<\/div>\n<h2><\/h2>\n<ol>\n<li><b>Lycopene increases in cooked tomatoes.\u00a0<\/b>Common sense would tell you that fresh fruits and vegetables tend to have more nutrients than their cooked counterparts. But tomatoes throw that theory out the window. Research shows that when tomatoes are cooked\u2014as happens when you make tomato sauce\u2014the lycopene content skyrockets. In fact, cooked and condensed tomato products, like\u00a0pasta sauce, marinara sauce, sun-dried tomatoes, and tomato paste, contain 10 to 15 times more lycopene than a fresh tomato.<\/li>\n<li><b>Lycopene can protect you from sunburn.\u00a0<\/b>Though eating lycopene-rich foods shouldn\u2019t really replace your good sunscreen-wearing habit, there is promising research that people who consistently get lycopene from foods a few times a week have up to 50% less skin redness after exposure to UV rays than those who don\u2019t. Lycopene has also been shown to reverse UV-causing sun damage by boosting levels of procollagen in the skin.\n<div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0244\/9702\/9184\/files\/lycopene_inpost_2_480x480.jpg?v=1616770303\" alt=\"\" \/><\/div>\n<\/li>\n<li><b>Lycopene is good for your eyes.<\/b>\u00a0Research shows that getting plenty of this powerful antioxidant may prevent or delay cataracts and reduce center vision loss known as macular degeneration.<\/li>\n<li><b>Lycopene can fight prostate cancer.\u00a0<\/b>A study of more than 40,000 men showed that those who ate two or more servings of lycopene-rich pasta sauce per week were 30% less likely to develop prostate cancer. Another study connected moderate daily lycopene (like what you\u2019d get in \u00bc cup of pasta sauce) to improved fertility in healthy young men by 40%.<\/li>\n<li><b>Lycopene is like natural ibuprofen.<\/b>\u00a0Nerve pain can be hard to treat naturally, which is why so many people pop over-the-counter painkillers like acetaminophen, aspirin, and ibuprofen. But lycopene can help in this realm, too. Several studies show positive connections between lycopene intake and reduced neuropathic pain.<\/li>\n<li><b>Lycopene makes tomatoes red.\u00a0<\/b>Yes, we can thank our star for making tomatoes such a stunning hue of rose red. Lycopene is a carotenoid pigment, and the riper the tomato, the more lycopene it contains.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<div><strong>Curtain Call:<\/strong>\u00a0Worthy of grand applause, lycopene is certainly a star antioxidant in every way, showing up in the most delicious natural foods. To truly honor her talents, give this special nutrient an encore at your dinner table night after night.<\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<p><i>Jessie Shafer is a registered dietitian-nutritionist, team member at\u00a0<\/i><a href=\"https:\/\/therealfoodrds.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><i>The Real Food RDs<\/i><\/a><i>, former magazine editor, and busy mom of two who loves to pretend vegetables are Broadway stars.<br \/>\n<\/i><\/p>\n<div><\/div>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>You may not be familiar with\u00a0lycopene, but she\u2019s one antioxidant that deserves some stage time. Let\u2019s start with Act One and familiarize ourselves with this leading lady of the carotenoid clan. She\u2019s feisty, she\u2019s fierce, and she will paint this town red. At the surface,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":22596,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1919,1908],"tags":[2248,1692],"class_list":["post-22595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-food-reviews","category-healthy","tag-otomot","tag-tomato"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v25.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Hey, Why Are Tomatoes Red? - BoredMom<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Hey, Why Are Tomatoes Red? - BoredMom\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"You may not be familiar with\u00a0lycopene, but she\u2019s one antioxidant that deserves some stage time. 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