The “Glow Food” Dermatologists Keep Mentioning Isn’t Expensive or Exotic

Skincare aisles are packed with serums promising radiance, most charging a premium for a tiny bottle that barely lasts a month. Dermatologists keep pointing people somewhere completely different instead.

The food getting mentioned again and again is not rare, expensive or hard to find. Keep reading to see what it is and why it keeps coming up in dermatology research.

It Is Sitting In The Produce Aisle Right Now

The food dermatologists keep circling back to is tomatoes, thanks to a compound called lycopene that gives them their red color. Lycopene works as an antioxidant that helps protect skin cells from the kind of damage that leads to premature aging and dullness.

Unlike rare superfoods flown in from overseas, tomatoes sit in nearly every grocery store in the country year round. It is about as ordinary an ingredient as produce gets.

One Study Found A Real Difference In Sun Protection

The research behind this claim is more specific than most food and skin advice tends to be. A study published in the British Journal of Dermatology found that participants who ate five tablespoons of tomato paste daily showed 33 percent more protection against sunburn compared to a control group.

That is a meaningfully large difference for something that requires no prescription and costs next to nothing. Researchers at Manchester and Newcastle Universities have found similar results tying tomato intake to better protection against UV damage.

Cooking It Actually Makes It More Effective

Counterintuitively, cooked tomatoes may actually work better for skin than raw ones. Cooking tomatoes into sauce or paste increases how much lycopene the body can actually absorb, rather than diminishing the benefit the way heat sometimes does with other nutrients.

That means a jar of pasta sauce or a spoonful of tomato paste stirred into a dish is not just convenient, it may genuinely be the more effective option. It is a rare case where the shortcut and the healthier choice happen to be the exact same thing.

It Costs A Fraction Of What Skincare Products Do

Compared to serums built around synthesized antioxidants, tomatoes cost a fraction of the price for a comparable benefit. A can of tomato paste typically runs a dollar or two, a stark contrast to serums that can run well into the double or triple digits for a small bottle.

None of this means skincare products are pointless, dermatologists still recommend sunscreen as the frontline defense. But as a low cost addition working from the inside, tomatoes are hard to beat on value alone.

So the next time a skincare aisle price tag causes some sticker shock, it might be worth checking the produce section instead. Sometimes the most effective glow food was sitting in the pantry the whole time, in the form of a jar of pasta sauce.