Tomatoes are a good source of the antioxidants lycopene and beta-carotene. But if you eat a tomato with a little fat, like a drizzle of olive oil, the body is likely to absorb all these nutrients.
That is what scientists at Iowa State University found out. They recruited graduate students to eat bowls of salad greens with tomatoes and various types of salad dressings — from fat-free to regular Italian. The researchers put IV lines into the participants’ veins and drew blood samples before and after they’d eaten the salads in order to get precise measurements of the absorption of nutrients.
When researchers went back and analyzed the blood samples, they realized that people who had eaten fat-free or low-fat dressings didn’t absorb the beneficial carotenoids from the salad. Only when they had eaten the oil-based dressing did they get the nutrients.
Carotenoids are the pigments responsible for red-, yellow- and orange-colored fruits and vegetables. And carotenoids are also found in dark green vegetables such as spinach. The compounds convert to Vitamin A in the body, and studies have found that carotenoids have anti-oxidant activity which may help protect cells from damage caused by free radicals.
There are other ways to help maximize the absorption of carotenoid nutrients, such as chopping or grating breaks down the plant material into finer particle size which allows better the absorption of beta-carotene.
[Source]
Chapter: Food,Health :: 4 September 2009
