I Scream for Lycopene
Posted on June 18, 2008
Have you ever heard of lycopene? I’m a big fan of the stuff and hopefully soon you will be too!
Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant that may play an important role in preventing prostate and other cancers.1 Lycopene can be found in tomatoes, watermelons, and pink and red grapefruits.
One study found that men who consumed several servings of tomatoes and tomato products each week were much less likely to develop prostate cancer than those who ate only one or two servings each week.2 Numerous other studies have also linked lycopene consumption to lower rates of stomach and lung cancers.
In tomatoes, lycopene is stored in the cell walls, and because of this, our bodies have a hard time extracting it from raw tomatoes. Cooking tomatoes and processing them will help breakdown the cell walls and make the lycopene more easily accessible to our bodies.3
I love tomatoes and I love them even more after learning the great health benefits they can give to our bodies. Try to eat several servings of tomatoes every week. Tomato sauce, juice, and even ketchup can be good sources of lycopene. For more ideas and information, check out lycopene.org.
Get your lycopene on.
- Walter C. Willett, Eat, Drink, and Be Healthy: The Harvard Medical School Guide to Healthy Eating (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2001), 117. [↩]
- Ibid., 119-20. [↩]
- Ibid.,126. [↩]
Don't forget to shop for gear at LittleTriathlete
» Filed Under Nutrition, Prevention
Comments
View Comments to “I Scream for Lycopene”
Leave a Reply
I agree, i’m a big fan too after reading about its benefits. It is a great source for a healthly lifestyle and can be found in most red fruits aswell as tomato paste. A company on the internet actually sell lycopene capsules and I have been told it reduces the risk of cancer, helps asthmatics and helps keep arteries healthy.