Lycopene Health Benefits

Lycopene is a very powerful antioxidant.. It is a phytochemical and a red carotene pigment with no vitamin A properties but has twice the antioxidant power of beta-carotene. It is responsible for the red color in tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables and is well known for its antioxidant and cancer fighting properties.

Your body does not make its own lycopene and you need to get it from foods rich in this phytochemical. It is not an essential nutrient as such but commonly found in a variety of foods with red color.

Sources of Lycopene:

• Cooked tomatoes in the form of ketchup, tomato sauce, pizza sauce and tomato juice

• Papaya

• Red peppers- capsicums

• Watermelon

• Guava

• Dark colored grapefruits

• Rosehips

• Carrots

*Have your lycopene food with a bit of oil as it is better digested with a small amount of fat: some olive oil on your tomato based pasta sauce or low fat cheese on your pizza. 

Lycopene Health Benefits:

• Free radicals are the culprit for affecting your cells badly and causing various diseases. Lycopene is a very powerful antioxidant that is effective in fighting these free radicals.

• It may help men with preventing prostate cancer, which happens to occur after a certain age, and other types of cancer.

• Lycopene is found to reduce the risk of breast, prostate, skin, gastrointestinal, cervical and lung cancers by inhibiting the cancerous cell growth.

• It can help men with fertility related problems.

• Lycopene may prevent bone loss, osteoporosis and shrinkage of skeletal system.

• It may protect the skin against the aging and damaging effects of sunlight, wrinkling, sunburns and even skin cancer.

• As a powerful antioxidant, lycopene can be helpful in preventingasthma.

• It can help with age related degeneration of brain cells and decay in nervous system.

• There are also claims that it can assist with diseases like diabetes, kidney disease, eye disorders and macular degeneration.

 

Lyopene Side Effects – How Much Lycopene?

Lycopene is believed to interact with other vitamins and minerals and it may actually enhance the value of these nutrients.

There is no strict daily recommended lycopene allowance and you may be better off including cooked tomatoes or other red colored lycopene rich foods daily in your diet, as long as you are not allergic to any of these foods. But watch out for the changes in your skin color as it may turn orange from eating too much of red foods.

Lycopene supplements are great too, however you are more likely to overdo it with supplements than lycopene foods, so you may want to asking a health professional to help you better with what you may need the lycopene supplement for. Overdose can cause diarrhea, nausea and vomiting.

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