What is Lycopene?
Tomatoes add zing to your favorite sauce, fight off disease and improve your appearance. What’s the key to their super powers? lust look at their through-and-through red hue.
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Lycopene, a natural chemical that gives tomatoes and other fruits such as watermelon and grapefruit their reddish color, is widely believed to have disease-fighting capabilities. Research has been finding that the more lycopene people have in their bodies, the lower their risk of cancer and heart disease.
By now you probably know that lycopene is more available in processed or cooked tomato products–think ketchup, juice and suauce (and yes, that means pizza). Allergic to tomatoes or simply don’t like their taste? No problem. You can get lycopene in a pill. The trick is to find a supplement that has a whole-tomato base. “It should say tomato-based’ on the bottle because you need to get a supplement that contains all the factors in fresh tomatoes that work synergistically with lycopene,” says Cathleen London, MD, a Brookline, Massachusetts, physician in private practice.
And if you thought adding ketchup to your list of “should eat” foods was great news, here’s more: Researchers are now exploring whether lycopene’s potent antioxidant effects may also work their magic when applied directly to the skin to prevent skin cancer and aging. Initial research bodes well.
