Lycopene & It’s Benefits

Are you familiar with Lycopene? If not, let me share some important information about this amazing antioxidant. Lycopene is a part of the carotene family and is found in watermelons, pink grapefruits, apricots and pink guavas. Concentrated amounts of lycopene are found in tomatoes and tomato products. Lycopene is what gives the fruit or vegetable it’s wonderful red color. A cup of tomato juice can provide you with 23mg of lycopene. Lycopene is hard for the body to break down but when tomato products are processed under high heat it makes it more bioavailable for human consumption. Processed tomato products include: tomato paste, juice, sauce and ketchup.

There has been valid research that shows lycopene does indeed help to prevent free radical damage by improving cell-to-cell junctions and cell metabolism. Lycopene has been shown to reduce the risk of many cancers such as breast, ovarian, lung, pancreas and bladder. Lycopene has even been used to treat human papilloma virus, which can cause uterine cancer. Lycopene has also been shown to reduce prostate cancer. What’s even more amazing is cancer patients who were in the advanced stages of prostate cancer received even greater benefits from lycopene (in therapeutic amounts). (http://www.ars.usda.gov/News/docs.htm?docid=19428). Lycopene has also been found to reduce the risk of heart disease, lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure in individuals who suffered from mild to moderate hypertension. Consuming 7 tablespoons of tomato paste has been shown to add an SPF of 3 and improve skin texture. This is not meant to take the place of sunscreen but it certainly can give you some additional protection. If you’re not a tomato fan, add a lycopene supplement to your daily health regimen. Being that lycopene is fat soluble, consuming fats with lycopene makes it more absorb-able. For example, mixing olive oil with tomato paste increases it’s absorption.

In closing, I love all veggies that are healthy for me and I personally enjoy tomatoes paste on a whole-wheat cracker, it’s kinda my quick fix when I’m craving pizza. I take that back, I don’t like leeks and too much cilantro makes me queasy. But there are plenty of other veggies that I do like and if my health depended on eating leeks everyday, I guess I could stomach them:{