Benefits
Skin redness after UV light with daily tomato paste
In two small controlled trials, adults ate 40 or 55 g of tomato paste (about 16 mg lycopene) with olive oil daily, or olive oil alone. After 10 weeks, skin redness after UV light was 40% lower than in controls, with no difference at 4 weeks. In the second, an instrument-measured erythema threshold was higher than control, but the visually read minimal erythema dose did not differ. Tomato is not a substitute for sunscreen.
Skin structure markers after UV exposure
In 20 healthy women, 12 weeks of daily tomato paste with olive oil, compared with olive oil alone, reduced the UV-induced rise in MMP-1, an enzyme that breaks down collagen, in skin biopsies. Procollagen I rose and UV-linked damage to skin mitochondrial DNA fell after the paste, but these were not reported as differences from olive oil. These are tissue markers from one small trial, not visible skin aging outcomes.
Blood vessel widening (flow-mediated dilation)
In 75 healthy adults, tomato juice supplying 15 or 27 mg lycopene a day gave higher flow-mediated dilation than a placebo juice at 12 weeks, in a trial run by the juice maker. In 19 adults, 70 g of paste a day for 2 weeks raised it compared with no paste. In 19 postmenopausal women, 70 g of puree a day for a week did not change it.
LDL cholesterol with tomato juice and tomato products
In 21 healthy adults, 3 weeks of a high tomato diet (400 mL of tomato juice a day plus ketchup) lowered LDL cholesterol by 12.9% compared with 3 weeks without tomato products. A pooled analysis of intervention trials found tomato product arms lowered LDL cholesterol by 0.22 mmol/L on average. Studies were short and small.
LDL resistance to oxidation in lab tests
In lab tests on blood drawn after tomato periods, LDL formed 13% fewer oxidized phospholipids than at baseline after 3 weeks of a high tomato diet, and its oxidation lag time was 18% longer after 2 weeks of tomato juice. Both were before and after comparisons. In a randomized trial, tomato or carrot juice gave only a 4.5% trend (P = 0.08), and oxidative stress markers did not differ from placebo juice.
Source of lycopene, vitamin C and potassium
USDA data list about 2.6 mg of lycopene, 13.7 mg of vitamin C and 237 mg of potassium per 100 g of raw tomato. Paste is far more concentrated, with about 28.8 mg of lycopene and 1010 mg of potassium per 100 g. Lycopene from paste was absorbed better than from fresh tomatoes, and adding olive oil to tomato juice raised blood lycopene.
Mechanism of action
Processing and fat release lycopene
Lycopene is a fat-soluble carotenoid held in the tomato's cell structure. In a single-meal study with corn oil, tomato paste gave 2.5-fold higher peak and 3.8-fold higher total lycopene in the blood fats that carry absorbed carotenoids than the same lycopene dose from fresh tomatoes, although both had the same isomer pattern. Tomato juice taken with refined olive oil raised all plasma lycopene isomers.
Carotenoids carried in LDL particles
Daily tomato juice raised plasma lycopene nearly threefold in one trial, and LDL particles from tomato juice periods resisted oxidation longer in lab tests. In a high tomato diet study, people whose blood lycopene, beta-carotene and gamma-carotene rose most had the smallest falls in total and LDL cholesterol, and the LDL oxidation change was not linked to blood carotenoids.
Whole food matrix, not a single compound
Tomato foods supply lycopene together with beta-carotene, vitamin C, potassium and fiber, so food trials cannot separate their effects. In a meta-analysis, tomato product arms lowered LDL cholesterol and improved flow-mediated dilation, while lower systolic blood pressure was seen with lycopene supplements rather than tomato foods.
Clinical trials
Controlled trial: 40 g of tomato paste (about 16 mg lycopene) with 10 g of olive oil daily for 10 weeks, compared with olive oil alone. Skin redness was measured by chromatometry 24 hours after solar simulator light at baseline, week 4 and week 10. Funding is not stated in the abstract (Stahl et al. 2001, J Nutr)
19 volunteers: 9 tomato paste, 10 olive oil only.
At week 10, redness on the back after UV light was 40% lower in the tomato paste group than in controls (P = 0.02). There was no significant difference at week 4. Blood lycopene rose only in the tomato paste group.
Randomized controlled trial: 55 g of tomato paste (16 mg lycopene) in olive oil, or olive oil alone, daily for 12 weeks, with UV testing and skin biopsies before and after. Funding is not stated in the abstract (Rizwan et al. 2011, Br J Dermatol)
20 healthy women aged 21 to 47 (median 33) with fair, easily burned skin (phototype I or II).
The instrument measured erythema threshold (D30) was higher after tomato paste than control (36.6 vs 23 mJ/cm2, P = 0.03), but the visually read minimal erythema dose did not differ between groups. UV-induced MMP-1 was lower with tomato paste than control (P = 0.04), procollagen I rose (P = 0.05), and UV-linked mitochondrial DNA deletion fell after tomato paste (P = 0.01).
Randomized, placebo-controlled, double-blind, parallel trial (UMIN000051176) of a placebo juice (0.7 mg lycopene a day), tomato juice (15.0 mg) or high-lycopene tomato juice (26.7 mg) for 12 weeks. All four authors work at Kagome Co., which makes tomato juice (Yoshida et al. 2025, Food Funct)
75 healthy adults with borderline flow-mediated dilation (4 to 7%); 72 analyzed (23 placebo, 25 tomato juice, 24 high-lycopene juice).
At week 12, flow-mediated dilation was 6.1% with tomato juice and 7.0% with high-lycopene juice versus 5.4% with placebo (both p < 0.001); the high-lycopene juice was also higher at weeks 4 and 8. Blood lycopene rose in both tomato groups. Oxidative stress markers and nitrogen oxide levels did not differ between groups.
Randomized-sequence, single-blind (operator) crossover: 70 g of tomato paste a day (33.3 mg lycopene) added to the usual diet for 14 days, or a control period without paste, each after a 2-week washout. Funding is not stated in the abstract (Xaplanteris et al. 2012, Nutr Res)
19 healthy volunteers (8 men, 11 women), mean age 39.
Over the study, flow-mediated dilation rose more with tomato paste than in the control period (P = 0.047). There was no change after the first day (P = 0.329); by day 15 it rose 3.3% with paste and fell 0.5% in the control period (P = 0.03). Total oxidative status fell from baseline with paste (P = 0.038).
Randomized, placebo-controlled crossover: a buttered roll with or without 70 g of tomato puree daily, with artery function measured after 24 hours and after 7 days (Stangl et al. 2011, Br J Nutr)
Healthy non-smoking postmenopausal women; 19 completed with usable ultrasound data.
Plasma lycopene rose from 0.30 to 0.74 micromol/L after 7 days of tomato puree, but neither 24 hours nor 7 days of puree changed flow-mediated dilation or nitrate-induced dilation of the brachial artery, and lycopene levels did not correlate with flow-mediated dilation.
Dietary intervention in a fixed order: a 2-week baseline period, then 3 weeks with no tomato products, then 3 weeks of a high tomato diet (400 mL of tomato juice and 30 g of ketchup daily, about 27 mg lycopene). Not randomized; the authors note the diets were not controlled and intake was not monitored. Funded by the Academy of Finland and Finnish foundations (Silaste et al. 2007, Br J Nutr)
21 healthy non-smoking adults (5 men, 16 women) aged 20 to 49 with normal cholesterol, working at a university hospital.
Compared with the tomato free period, the high tomato diet lowered total cholesterol by 5.9% (P = 0.002) and LDL cholesterol by 12.9% (P = 0.0002). LDL oxidation (oxidized phospholipid formation) was 13% lower than at baseline (P = 0.02). People whose blood carotenoids rose most had the smallest cholesterol falls, and LDL oxidation was not linked to carotenoid changes.
4-week placebo run-in, then randomization to 500 mL of commercial tomato juice a day, vitamin E 800 U a day, vitamin C 500 mg or continued placebo for 4 weeks (Upritchard et al. 2000, Diabetes Care)
57 adults under 75 with well-controlled type 2 diabetes.
During tomato juice, plasma lycopene rose nearly threefold (P = 0.001) and the lag time before copper-induced LDL oxidation lengthened by 42% (P = 0.001), similar to the 54% with vitamin E; the abstract reports these within-group changes, not a test against placebo. C-reactive protein fell only with vitamin E, and adhesion molecules and glucose did not change.
Randomized crossover: 330 mL a day of tomato juice or carrot juice for 2 weeks each, on a low carotenoid diet. Run by the same German research group as a 2000 tomato juice study (Briviba et al. 2004, J Nutr)
22 healthy men.
Both juices raised carotenoids in plasma and feces (P < 0.001), but LDL resistance to oxidation with the juices rose by only about 4.5%, a trend (P = 0.08), and malondialdehyde, a marker of fat oxidation, did not change in plasma or feces. The abstract does not report a separate tomato versus carrot comparison.