Why Tomatoes Might Be Even Healthier With a Little Olive Oil

What lycopene is and why tomatoes are known for it

Lycopene belongs to a family of plant pigments called carotenoids, the same family responsible for the orange colour in carrots and the pink in watermelon. In tomatoes, lycopene is the compound behind the deep red colour, and it has been studied for its antioxidant properties, which is part of why tomatoes get so much attention in general nutrition conversations.

Raw tomatoes already contain lycopene, so eating them fresh is never a bad choice. But the form lycopene is in, and what is eaten alongside it, changes how much of it your body can use. This is a good example of why nutrition advice is rarely just about one nutrient in isolation. It is about how foods and their preparation interact with each other. If you want more of that kind of practical, ingredient-level thinking, the health hub covers similar territory.

Why a bit of olive oil can help your body use it better

Lycopene is fat-soluble, meaning it dissolves in fat rather than water. That is part of why a plain, oil-free tomato salad does not give your body as much access to the lycopene as the same tomatoes cooked with a little olive oil. The fat helps lycopene get absorbed through the gut more effectively.

Cooking also plays a role on its own, since heat breaks down the tomato's cell walls and releases more lycopene from the plant structure. Put cooking and a bit of oil together, such as in a simmered tomato sauce, and you get more usable lycopene than you would from the same weight of raw, oil-free tomato.

This does not mean raw tomatoes are pointless or that you need to cook every single one you eat. It just means that if lycopene absorption is something you care about, a cooked tomato dish with a reasonable amount of fat is doing more work for you than a fat-free raw version, even if the raw version still tastes great on its own.

Simple ways to eat tomatoes with oil in real meals

• Roast halved tomatoes with a drizzle of olive oil, garlic, and a little salt until they soften and caramelise slightly.
• Make a simple simmered tomato sauce with olive oil as the base, rather than skipping the fat to save calories.
• Toss a tomato salad with a proper olive oil dressing instead of a fat-free one if lycopene absorption matters to you.
• Add a splash of oil to soups or stews that include tomato as a base ingredient.

If you want a simple structure for building meals like this around your week, the Balanced Meal Builder can help you plan plates that include a sensible amount of healthy fat alongside vegetables like tomatoes.

Canned and pre-made tomato sauces already contain some oil in most recipes, so you may already be getting more of this benefit than you realised just from a jar of pasta sauce or a can of stewed tomatoes used in a curry.

Why the tomato-and-olive-oil pairing is worth remembering

This is not a reason to drown every tomato dish in oil. A modest amount is enough to help with absorption, and the bigger point is simply not treating oil as something to avoid entirely whenever tomatoes are on the plate. Cooked tomatoes with a reasonable amount of olive oil are, in a real sense, a better package than raw tomatoes eaten completely fat-free.

It is a small detail, but it is a useful one to keep in mind next time you are deciding whether to add that extra drizzle. For more grounded, practical nutrition explainers like this, the food archive hub keeps adding to it.

It is also a nice reminder that a small, simple change to how you cook something can matter more than swapping to an entirely different food altogether.

Does any oil work, or does it need to be olive oil specifically?

Most dietary fats can help with absorption, though olive oil is a common and well-studied choice. The combinations in our low-effort meal-prep guide show how to turn details like this into food you can repeat during the week.