Why ketchup should be part of your anti aging diet
Whether you eat them raw, as ketchup, paste or a sauce on your pizza, the health and anti aging benefits of tomatoes simply cannot be denied. Tomatoes are one of nature’s superfoods.
The reasons why tomatoes should be part of your anti aging diet can be summed up in one word – lycopene. Tomatoes contain more lycopene – one of the most powerful antioxidants known – than any other food.
Lycopene belongs to the same family of antioxidants as betacarotene but is almost twice as powerful.
Antioxidants are powerful neutralizers of the free radicals that often damage human cells, causing premature aging and many forms of cancer including lung, bladder, cervix and skin.
Studies have shown that lycopene protects against many cancers including: digestive tract, colon, prostate, and lungs – and the degree of protection is considerable.
A study in Italy found that people who ate seven or more servings a week of raw tomatoes were 60 percent less likely to develop cancer of the stomach, colon, or rectum compared with people who ate two or fewer servings a week.
More recently research has focused on the role of lycopene in protecting from cancer of the prostate – a disease which primarily attacks older men. In a 2002 study of 47,000 health professionals researchers at Harvard School of Public Health found that men who ate tomato based foods – including ketchup – had a much lower risk of developing prostate cancer.
Lycopene has also been associated positively with improved vision health in age. Cataracts and age related macular degeneration or AMD can affect many women over the age of 60 particularly. Research has shown that lycopene provides improved levels of protection from declining vision health as we get older.
Tests have shown that the lycopene in tomatoes can be more readily absorbed into the body when the fruit is processed into sauce, pulped into juice, or pressed into paste and ketchup. Lycopene in all these forms is absorbed up to four times more efficiently than from raw tomatoes.
You can buy a supplement with lycopene derived from tomatoes but – at the current time – research seems to indicate that taking a lycopene supplement may not offer the same anti aging and disease prevention as plenty of whole tomato products in your diet.
However you eat your tomatoes -tinned, frozen or cartoned – the good news is you still get the anti aging and health benefits of lycopene. There certainly aren’t many foods that can claim health benefits no matter how they are processed.
One thing that does matter though – for maximum antioxidant protection – you should eat tomatoes with oils or fats. If you have tomatoes in salad then add an oil based dressing (olive oil preferably) – if you cook tomatoes add oil and for once – don’t worry too much about the cheese on your pizza.
Strangely enough, lycopene isn’t an essential nutrient – our bodies can function perfectly well without it. But even so – for maximum anti aging health and the best protection from some of the worst diseases associated with aging – the benefits of ketchup should definitely not be underestimated!
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Filed under Anti Aging Nutrition
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