Ward off cancer with super-nutrient lycopene: Here’s the research

by PF Louis
Natural News
August 28, 2013

(NaturalNews) Men who like pizza, pasta with red sauce, and lasagna have a new excuse to eat more of those dishes upon discovering that lycopene in tomato sauce promotes prostate health. This news has been around for some time.

Recent testing with lycopene from mostly tomato or tomato sauce sources has discovered that there it exhibits plenty of anti-cancer activity, especially regarding prostate cancer. Some tests have determined the best sources to provide the most assimilable form of lycopene as well.

Lycopene is highest in some red or orange plant foods, including tomatoes, watermelon, pink grapefruit, guavas, papaya, and rose hips. Sun dried tomatoes contain the highest amounts of lycopene. [1]

Ironically, tomatoes cooked into pastes or sauces have more lycopene than raw tomatoes. That’s the inverse of the food-losing-its-nutritional-value-when-cooked rule.

Although lycopene is a carotenoid, it doesn’t convert into vitamin A. It lacks a certain molecular ring which disables that conversion. But in exchange, lycopene’s antioxidant potential is enhanced.

And there are even more anti-cancer properties beyond reducing oxidative stress before it causes damage.

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