Lycopene : Your Body's Best Friend

Lycopene helps nourish our body

Fruits and vegetables provide ample of important nutrients and antioxidants such as vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene and lycopene. Antioxidants have disease-fighting characteristics that protect cells from substances called free radicals. Free radicals are formed when the cells in the body burns oxygen for energy. Free radical damages cells and therefore may lead to the development of cancers and diseases, and hence, antioxidants work by neutralizing these free radicals before they damage the cells. Antioxidant helps to keep the immune system healthy as well. For a healthy diet, one should include plenty of fruits and vegetables as part of a healthy eating plan.

What is lycopene?

Lycopene is a pigment that gives fruits and vegetables such as tomatoes and watermelon their characteristic red color. It is one of hundreds of pigments that color the fruits and vegetables. One of the more familiar pigments is the beta-carotene, which is found in carrots. Lycopene also has strong antioxidant capabilities. In fact, lycopene is two times stronger than beta-carotene.

Numerous studies have shown that consuming foods rich in lycopene helps reduce the risk of cardiovascular disease and also prostate cancer in men. A six-year study and research of about 48,000 men has been conducted by Harvard University in the year 1995 and has found that men who ate 10 or more servings a week of tomato products were 45 percent less likely to develop prostate cancer. The study has also found that men who ate four to seven servings a week of tomato products were 20 percent less likely to develop the cancer. As such, lycopene is ideal to be used as prostate cancer home remedies. Nevertheless, the research has been published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute.

In recent years, lycopene has received a lot of attentions from researchers. They have found that lycopene plays an important role in reducing heart diseases. Lycopene helps reduces the amount of oxidized low-density lipoprotein or better known as LDL, the bad cholesterol. As a powerful antioxidant, lycopene has the ability to mitigate coronary artery disease and many forms of cancers as well such as breast cancer and prostate cancer. The protective effect of antioxidants has been well documented.

The content of lycopene in one’s diet can be determined in the level of lycopene in the body fat. Men who have the highest amount of lycopene in their body fat were less likely to develop heart disease than those who have the least amount of lycopene in their body fat.

Where can we get lycopene?

Lycopene is not produced in human body and hence, one can only obtain the goodness of this antioxidant from foods that are high in lycopene. Studies have shown that it is quite difficult to increase the amount of lycopene intake in one’s diet. It has also been found that taking dietary supplement of purified antioxidant does not work at all. In fact, one study has even found that giving beta-carotene supplement to smokers actually increased their chances of developing cancer.

Lycopene can be found in abundance in tomato products. Major sources of lycopene in a typical American diet are tomato paste, tomato juice, ketchup, spaghetti sauce and pizza sauce. Watermelon and pink grapefruit do provide some lycopene as well but they are in smaller amounts. Research has found that human body absorbs lycopene the best in processed tomato products rather than raw tomatoes. Human body absorbs lycopene 2.5 times better from tomato paste than from fresh tomatoes. However, the reason as to why is this so still remains unclear. Cooking fresh tomatoes with a little oil on the other hand, greatly enhances lycopene absorption.