LYCOPENE, THE NEW HEART ATTACK PREVENTER
Report #7250
A recent study from Europe shows that people who have the most lycopene stored in their body fat are the ones least likely to suffer heart attacks.
Lycopene is a potent antioxidant that helps to prevent the bad LDL cholesterol in your bloodstream from being converted to oxidized LDL that forms plaques in arteries and causes heart attacks. It's antioxidant properties also may help to prevent sunburns. You get lycopene, from tomatoes and other brightly colored vegetables, such as watermelon and red grapefruits, but it is absorbed in greater quantities from cooked tomatoes, rather than from fresh ones. The best sources are tomato paste and sauce and ketchup.
That doesn't mean that you should go out and buy lycopene pills because we need more research to see if lycopene can prevent heart attacks when it is taken without other components that are found in vegetables. Many people take beta carotene pills, another antioxidant that was thought to prevent heart attacks, but large scale studies show that people who do this are at increased risk for heart attacks and certain types of cancers. So, this recent research shows that you should eat lots of brightly colored fruits and vegetables and you get even more lycopene if you eat them after they are cooked.
By Gabe Mirkin, M.D., for CBS Radio News
Lenore Kohlmeier et al. University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. American Journal of Epidemiology October, 1997.
Checked 8/8/05