Paste Recipe That Fights Sun Damage

Skin cancer—both non-melanoma and melanoma—has been increasing over the past decades, according to the World Health Organization. A key contributing factor is that as ozone levels have become depleted, which provide a protective filter, we have become more vulnerable. So it's more important than ever that we protect ourselves with sun protection strategies. 

With "nontoxic sunscreen" products so greenwashed, imperfect, and often expensive, finding endogenous (that is, from the inside) ways to boost your biology’s defenses against the sun‘s damaging effects is an essential Ruan Detox Warrior strategy. Detoxing your sun exposure—like by wearing a large-brimmed hat and staying covered during peak hours—are also among the best nontoxic sun protection tactics. But so is eating certain foods.

In this article, you can learn more about how nutrition can empower your body to protect against damaging UV rays. As you continue to read, wonder whether we've decoded one of Mother Nature's gentle and generous ways of caring for us. Because many foods that boost our skin’s protection against the sun are at their tastiest during the summer.

How can diet protect against damaging UV rays?

In 2023, researchers reported that tomato and lycopene supplementation improved skin thickness, skin density, and skin pigmentation. Researched concluded that "Lycopene-rich products could be used as endogenous sun protection and may be a potential nutraceutical for sun protection." Specifically, the British Journal of Dermatology found that people taking a lycopene mixture had 33 percent more protection against sunburn.

Lycopene, an antioxidant found in many red fruits and vegetables, can protect your skin from the sun's harmful effects. Foods that are high in lycopene include tomatoes, watermelon, and apricots. Heated tomato products like tomato sauce, tomato paste, and sun-dried tomatoes—have the highest concentrations. Eating more lycopene-rich foods is a Detox Tweak that you can easily pursue!

Remember these couple things that makes the recipe below extra skin-supportive:

• The concentration of lycopene increases by around 160% when heated for more than 2 min, according to the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry. The recipe below optimizes lycopene bioavailability by heating lycopene-rich ingredients and including health fats. 
• Because lycopene is fat-soluble, it has been shown to increase lycopene absorption more than 4X when eaten with healthy fat—like avocado, quality cheese, olive oil, or even full-fat salad dressing. Suggestions for eating lycopene and healthy fats include caprese salad, avocado in a salad or salsa, and olive oil as salad dressing instead of dressing that’s reduced fat- or vegetable oil- based.

Skin-supportive recipe: Lycopene-rich pasta

The recipe below is for a tomato-based sauce that's rich with lycopene. It can be served over pasta or vegetable pasta. It makes more than enough for my family of five so I refrigerate leftovers.

Ingredients

Try to use organic ingredients whenever possible, or ingredients that have been farmed or manufactured in as low toxic an approach as possible.

• 1 eggplant
• 1 lemon
• red and/or yellow onions
• garlic
• tomato sauce
• tomato paste
• sundried tomatoes
• olive oil or avocado oil
• season according to your preferences with salt, pepper, red pepper flakes, jalapeno or habanero peppers
• Optional: spinach or nutritional yeast
• Pasta

I've written the recipe according to how I sequence the timing of three main things: baking an eggplant in the oven, boiling pasta, and making the rest of the pasta sauce.

Directions

Eggplant—part 1

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees on bake setting.
2. Wash eggplant well, then use a fork to poke holes throughout the eggplant.
3. Once oven is at 425 degrees, place eggplant in the oven for 20 minutes.

Sauce step 1 (and pasta)

1. Add oil to your nontoxic pot and preheat it on the lowest heat while you dice onions. Be mindful to avoid burning the pot.
2. Dice a red and/or yellow onion. I like lots of onions so I dice and use both red and yellow onions if I can.
3. Add oil to the warm pot.
4. Add diced onions to the warm pot of oil. Adjust heat so that onions will become transparent but be sure not to burn the oil or onions. 
5. Dice garlic and add to sauce pot. I love garlic and it's great for you so I add 4-6 large cloves. However, you most people may prefer 1-2 cloves.
6. In a separate stainless steel pot, start boiling water and a pinch of salt (for pasta). 
7. Dice sundried tomatoes and add to the pot after onions have become transparent and garlic cloves have softened.
8. Dice spinach and add after items in step 4 have simmered for a few minutes (how long exactly depends on your stove, pot, and quantity of ingredients). Saute until spinach is a darkened green.
9. After water is boiling, add pasta, and set timer for the pasta manufacturer's recommended time to cook pasta. After the timer rings, drain water. You can mix pasta with olive oil to minimize stickiness, add healthy fats, and optimize lycopene bioavailability by up to 4x.

Eggplant—part 2

1. Eggplant should be baked around now. Remove from oven when ready. Cut the eggplant into cubes. Be careful not to burn yourself.
2. Squeeze fresh lemon juice all over the eggplant.
3. Add to pot.

Sauce—step 2

1. Add tomato sauce and tomato paste to your liking. My children don't love a lot of sauce on their pasta so I add 1/3-1/2 of a tomato sauce jar. You can add more if you prefer. The tomato paste adds a flavor that you may not love so add amounts that suit your taste preference.
2. Simmer until warm.
3. When the sauce tastes ready, mix with pasta.
4. Season, according to your preferences, with salt, pepper, red chili flakes, fresh spicy peppers, and/or nutritional yeast (adds B vitamins).
5. Mix with pasta.

Detox your tomato sauce and tomato paste!

As with so much of what we put in, on, and around our bodies, it is important to be aware of toxicity in our daily foods and products. For example, did you know that Forever Chemicals and other endocrine-disrupting chemicals have been detected in store-bought tomato sauce? 

In 2022, tomato sauce products were tested for Forever Chemicals and 8% contained Forever Chemicals! While that may not sound like a lot, could your tomato sauce be among the toxic 8%?

Did you realize that endocrine-disrupting chemicals can contaminate your prepackaged ingredients?

Most shocking is that many of the contaminated products were certified organic. This highlights the need for conscious consumption—which is a cornerstone of Ruan Living's nontoxic lifestyle— because even "healthier" and "cleaner" certification standards cannot keep up with our increasing toxic lifestyles.

While making your own sauce with organic ingredients is the most nontoxic approach, when you need to use pre-packaged tomato sauce, the D-Tox Academy's Shopping Guides include a curated list of tomato sauces and tomato paste—among many others—products that were found to be among the least contaminated.

Image above shows sample pages from the D-Tox Academy Shopping Guides.

The D-Tox Academy Shopping Guides share my family's household staples, curated from 16 years of research and experimentation, provide more context including links to the research, the dates on which the products were evaluated, and more helpful information.

D-Tox Academy members: Click on this Pillar 6 Kitchen Detox section to see a more detailed version of the video above that shows the specific brands of olive oil, tomato paste, and tomato sauce that I chose after researching each product for Forever Chemicals, other contaminants, and nutrient density. Once you’re familiar with practical nontoxic products, using them for the rest of your life can significantly reduce your lifetime toxicity. Not yet a member but want to learn more? Click here: D-Tox Academy.