Diet Blurbs

Lycopene is an antioxidant that gives fruits and vegetables their pigment, or color. Consumption of lycopene rich food is believed to lower the risk of prostate cancer and cardiovascular disease.

Your body does not produce lycopene, so you need to get it from your diet. Tomato products is the richest source, and other notable sources are watermelon and pink grapefruit.

Another point to remember about lycopene is that your body will not absorb it from fresh tomatoes as readily as it does from processed tomatoes. However, cooking fresh tomatoes is a method for increasing lycopene’s absorption.

Consuming a diet chuck full of fruits and vegetables will provide your body with its all-important nutrients including antioxidants such as:

• lutein
• selenium
• lycopene
• vitamin A
• vitamin C
• vitamin E
• beta-carotene

Antioxidants fight diseases by protecting your cells from free radical damage by neutralizing them after they become a byproduct of energy production.

It is also believed that antioxidants are a key to maintaining a healthy immune system.

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