Why You Should Eat Tomato Sauce Often

If you make your own homemade tomato sauce, you will be able to get the most out of lycopene. You can also use other healthy ingredients as well.

Tomatoes can be cooked in many ways, which is great because they have amazing health benefits .  Some studies have shown that the lycopene found in tomatoes can help prevent cancer. You should therefore eat tomato sauce regularly  !

In this article, find out why you should be eating homemade tomato sauce every day to prevent and improve a variety of health problems.

What is lycopene?

Lycopene is  a pigment that gives red, purple, and orange fruits their beautiful color. It is found in the following foods:

• tomatoes
• Red pepper
• Watermelon
• papaya
• Guava
• strawberry
• Pink grapefruit

It is a carotenoid that your body cannot synthesize on its own; it is only found in plant foods.  Therefore, lycopene can only be absorbed through the consumption of vegetables.

• After ingestion, lycopene is absorbed in the intestine and deposited in the liver, testes, prostate and adrenal glands after about half an hour.
• Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant that  helps fight free radicals. It also helps against cell aging.

Tomatoes or Tomato Sauce?

Tomatoes themselves have a very high lycopene content.  Lycopene is present in very high concentrations in tomato sauce.

Lycopene concentration per 100 g:

• Raw tomato: 2,573 μg
• Ketchup: 17,716 µg
• Tomato sauce: 28,764 μg
• Dried tomato: 45,900 μg

Health benefits

Eating vegetables rich in lycopene is good for you in a number of ways:

Cancer screening

As mentioned at the beginning of this article, studies show that the lycopene in tomatoes can help prevent some types of cancer such as prostate, lung, and stomach cancers. There are also beneficial effects in pancreatic, colon, esophageal, oral and breast cancers.

Cardiovascular system

Eating tomatoes daily offers many other health benefits as well. One of them is that tomatoes help your cardiovascular system by improving cellular activity and the use of fat for fuel. This can lower the triglyceride level and the cholesterol level. 

Blood pressure

Lycopene has the ability to control blood pressure without adversely changing it, as it helps to thin your blood. Therefore, it is  particularly suitable for people with high blood pressure.

diabetes

For people with diabetes, regular consumption of tomatoes and other red vegetables  improves the way the body uses glucose.  The vegetables also help process the insulin well and prevent certain symptoms of diabetes, such as:

• Retinopathy
• Diabetic foot
• Intermittent claudication

Therefore, lycopene is very suitable for the treatment and prevention of diabetes.

Eating tomato sauce – the best way

As mentioned above, tomato concentrate is the best way to consume high amounts of lycopene. However, this antioxidant is not always absorbed in the same way; It depends on what food it is in and what other nutrients it is consumed with.

The absorption improves significantly when we consume tomatoes with good quality fat and at high temperatures. That is why the most effective and healthiest way to consume tomatoes is with a homemade tomato sauce prepared with olive oil (extra virgin) at a high temperature.

You can  make it even healthier by adding a touch of black pepper and turmeric.  That way, you’ll also make it an excellent cure for all types of inflammation and pain.

Ingredients:

• 10 ripe tomatoes
• 4 cloves of garlic
• ½ cup extra virgin olive oil (100 g)
• 1 teaspoon turmeric powder (4 g)
• 1 teaspoon of ground black pepper (4 g)
• ½ tablespoon of brown sugar (7 g)
• 1 tablespoon of sea salt (12 g)

Preparation:

• First chop the garlic cloves and sauté for a minute.
• Next, puree the tomatoes and add the spices.

• Put the garlic with the tomato-spice mixture in a saucepan and cook for about 15 minutes.
• It’s best to eat this sauce while it’s hot.