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Lycopene
Lycopene is one of the 600 or so members of the carotenoid family, phytochemicals that are abundant in fruits and vegetables. The best food sources of lycopene are tomato and tomato products.
Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant carotenoid and the pigment that gives tomatoes, watermelon, and pink grapefruit their characteristic red color. Clinical studies have indicated that Lycopene works through a number of mechanisms to support cardiovascular health and immune function. In addition, epidermilogical studies have determined that lycopene may be particularly important for the support of prostate health, as well as for the health of the digestive tract.
Beta carotene, the most famous of the carotenoids, has long intrigued researchers because of its pro-vitamin A activity-that is, it is converted to vitamin A as the body needs it. Much research has been done on beta carotene, but lesser-known carotenoids such as lycopene, which do not have any pro-vitamin A activity, have long been ignored. It was believed that these "junk" carotenoids served little purpose other than to color food. More careful investigation, however, has shed new light on the unique role of carotenoids such as lycopene. In fact, researchers now believe that lycopene is a more potent antioxidant than beta carotene and also a powerful anticancer agent.
What is Lycopene?
Lycopene is part of a group of nutrients known as carotenoids. Similarly, Lycopene, in certain foods, is the coloring agent. It also does not have the vitamin A characteristics that beta-carotene and retinol do, but is fat-soluble similar to vitamin A. Most commonly, Lycopene is found primarily in tomatoes and tomato products. It can also be found in fruit such as watermelon, pink grapefruit, and guava. Lycopene exists in a limited number of other foods as well. Most of the lycopene consumed, as you can well imagine, is in the form of tomato products such as ketchup, tomato juice, spaghetti, and pizza sauces. Unlike many other nutrients lycopene does not dissipate during the cooking of tomato products and can often be concentrated because of the cooking process. This then gives us the clue as to what to look for when looking for lycopene rich foods.
Lycopene is a derivative from tomatoes which is responsible for giving many fruits and vegetables a healthy red color. This natural substance is an unsaturated carotenoid pigment, similiar to Beta-Carotene. While Lycopene has no vitamin A activity, research has shown it to be one of the most important natural antioxidants produced today.
Lycopene is the pigment that gives tomatoes their red color, and is one of four main carotenoids normally found in human blood and tissue. Studies show that lycopene is a scavenger of singlet-oxygen, offering powerful antioxidant activity. Lycopene is a highly potent antioxidant carotenoid.
Since that ground-breaking study, researchers have tested lycopene on human and animal cancer cells, and the results have been very promising. Researchers reported that lycopene inhibited the growth of cancer cells from breast, lung, and endometrial cancers. What's even more remarkable is that when laboratory animals were fed potent carcinogens, high levels of lycopene helped to suppress cancerous growths. In fact, the higher the dose of lycopene, the more effective it was against cancer. Lycopene is particularly effective against the chemical carcinogens found in tobacco smoke. Another study suggests that lycopene may help protect skin against photo-damage from exposure to ultraviolet light, which can cause wrinkles and even skin cancer.
Since blood levels of lycopene decline with age, this is one supplement you should consider if you are 50 or older, especially if you do not consume at least one tomato product daily. By the way, simply drinking a glass of tomato juice or eating a fresh tomato is not enough. The lycopene in tomato is not well absorbed by the body unless it is heated and combined with a small amount of fat, such as olive oil.
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