Tomatoes and Skin Protection

In 2007 the BBC released a documentary series called the Truth about Food. In this series the mission was to put to test many of the claims about certain foods and the ability to affect people. The series covered a wide scope of different foods and I will be blogging about a few of them over the coming weeks. Unlike most claims, the BBC actually hired scientist to conduct experiments to prove the claims. And for today’s blog we I will be discussing the Tomatoes and Skin Protection.

The test setup is pretty simple. They took people who burn easy and did a UV test on them. When the skin is exposed to UV light it will tan to reduce UV exposure. Some people react quicker to UV light then others. For the simple test they exposed people to different durations and different levels of UV light and recorded how long it took to react and how much of a reaction occurred. Basically they burned the test subjects but only mildly. These results are the baseline.

The next 12 weeks the test subjects ate Tomato paste which according to the BBC website contains the most lycopene, the compound responsible for the protection from UV light in the skin. After the 12 weeks was completed eating 55g of tomato paste every day the same subjects where given the same test. The 12 weeks of eating tomato paste resulted in an amazing 30% increase in skin protection. The subjects took longer to burn and the burn level was milder for the same duration of exposure.

So when it comes to the claim that Tomatoes are very good for your skin it would appear the science easily backs this up. It offers extra protection from UV light naturally.

BBC Source http://www.bbc.co.uk/sn/humanbody/truthaboutfood/young/tomatoes.shtml