The ingestion of tomato paste helps burns from the sun
Scientists believe that these beneficial effects are due to the presence in the tomato of a powerful antioxidant known as lycopene.
The intake of concentrated tomato paste, such as that coats the pizzas, can help prevent burns from the sun in his skin and premature aging, according to a British study.
Researchers from the University of Manchester asked a group of ten volunteers who ate the equivalent of five tablespoons of tomato paste and ten grams of olive oil for twelve weeks and another equivalent to just take the oil.
The scientists exposed volunteers in either group at both the beginning and end of the experiment to ultraviolet radiation and found that the first group were 33 percent less likely to burn to the second exposure to sunlight.
The effect of concentrated tomato paste was equivalent to 1.3 protection factor of a cream for skin, according to the scientists calculated.
Scientists believe that these beneficial effects are due to the presence in the tomato of a powerful antioxidant known as lycopene.
This substance, which is the one that gives its green color to tomatoes, has the ability to neutralize the harmful molecules that are produced in skin exposed to ultraviolet rays.
The damage that these free radicals produced in the structures of the skin leading to premature aging and in the most extreme cases of skin cancer.
Thus, another team from the University of Newcastle found that lycopene limit the harmful effects of sunlight on the DNA of the mitochondria (cellular organelles responsible for supplying and managing the energy required for cellular processes).
The disturbances experienced by the mitochondrial DNA are also associated with the aging of the skin.
Commenting on the results of these experiments, Professor Lesley Rhodes, a dermatologist at the University of Manchester, said that people should not think that tomatoes can replace the creams for skin, but they can strengthen their effect.
"If the individual succeeds in improving its protection in the long run through the diet, this may have a significant effect," the British scientist.
The results of both studies were presented at the annual meeting of the British Society for Research in Oxford dermatological