Can tomatoes protect your skin from harmful sun rays? Original paper

Excessive exposure to ultraviolet (UV) radiation can cause erythema (redness) and promote skin aging. Because lycopene (a carotenoid found in tomatoes) has strong antioxidant and anti-inflammatory properties, the consumption of lycopene or lycopene-rich products may protect the skin against UV radiation.

This meta-analysis of 21 trials (15 randomized controlled trials and 6 uncontrolled trials) examined the association between supplementation with lycopene or lycopene-rich products and UV-induced skin damage in a total of 968 healthy men and women (ages 18–73).

The outcomes were UV-induced skin redness, molecular markers of UV-induced skin deterioration (matrix metalloproteinase 1 and intercellular adhesion molecule 1), and skin photoaging parameters (skin elasticity, thickness, density, and pigmentation).

The types of intervention were tomato paste, tomato extracts, lycopene, and lycopene-containing products or supplements. The daily dose of lycopene ranged from 2.4 to 28.8 milligrams. In the trials that had control groups, the intervention was compared to placebo, olive oil, or bean oil. The intervention duration ranged from 4 to 24 weeks.

Compared to the control, the intervention was associated with reduced skin redness (low–moderate certainty of evidence), lower concentrations of matrix metalloproteinase 1 (moderate certainty of evidence) and intercellular adhesion molecule 1 (very low certainty of evidence), lower levels of skin pigmentation (low certainty of evidence), and higher skin thickness (moderate certainty of evidence) and density (very low certainty of evidence).