Red – Means Go
Tomato-y Treats That Are Truly Tops
Whether it’s revving up our veggie burgers or toning down our barbecue sauces, ketchup is one condiment few people could live without.
So squeeze more out of it by going organic. Organic ketchup packs three times more lycopene than the regular stuff and almost twice the level of flavonoids. Here’s what all that extra nutrition means for your body. Lycopene gives fruits (like tomatoes!) and veggies a rich red color, and it may give your body a leg up on loads of diseases — from cancer to clogged arteries.
Here are a few more tricks for getting more lycopene from your tomatoes with less effort:
1. Slice, dice, or puree them. Processing tomatoes helps unleash the lycopene.
2. Eat them with a bit of fat. Lycopene must latch on to fat (so you might as well make it healthy, like olive oil) to be absorbed by the intestinal wall.
3. Heat ’em up. Heat converts the lycopene in red tomatoes into a form that’s easier for your body to absorb.
And what about that superfood synergy we were talking about creating…
Well, here is an easy way to boost the power of another favorite tomato-y food: salsa. Just because good things are in your salsa doesn’t mean you’re getting all the good out of it. If you toss some avocado chunks into the spicy red stuff, you’ll absorb 400 percent more lycopene from the tomatoes.
Tags: Avocado, Avocados, Barbecue Sauces, Cancer, Chunks, Clogged Arteries, Diseases, Extra, Flavonoids, Fruits, Ketchup, Lycopene, Nutrition, Olive Oil, Red Stuff, Spinach Salad, Synergy, Three Times, Tomato, Tomatoes, Tops, Veggie Burgers
