You may have heard that tomatoes and processed tomato
products like tomato sauce and canned tomatoes protect against
some types of cancer. The cancer-preventing properties of
tomato products have been attributed to lycopene. It is a bright
red pigment found in tomatoes and other red fruits and is the
cause of their red color. Unlike other fruits and vegetables,
where nutritional content such as vitamin C is diminished upon
cooking, processing of tomatoes increases the concentration of
lycopene. Lycopene in tomato paste is four times more than in
fresh tomatoes. This is because lycopene is insoluble in water
and is tightly bound to vegetable fiber. Thus, processed tomato
products such as pasteurized tomato juice, so up, sauce, and
ketchup contain the highest concentrations of lycopene. Cooking
and crushing tomatoes as in the canning process and serving in
oil-rich dishes such as spaghetti sauce or pizza greatly increase
assimilation from the digestive tract into the bloodstream.
Lycopene is a fat-soluble substance, so the oil is said to help
absorption to a great extent.