What’s anti-aging about a tomato?

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Ok, so you’re on vacation in Italy (my personal Mecca) or the south of France or Barcelona (Spain) or on the Greek Island of Mykonos or on the Coast of Portugal and you stop a few people and ask them (in their respective language) about their intake of lycopene. Chances are, you’ll get a weird look. Now if you take out your bilingual dictionary and look up the words “tomato” and “cooked tomatoes” and ask these same people about local dishes prepared with fresh tomatoes and cooked/baked tomatoes, you’ll be greeted with a warm smile and possibly an invitation to a nice home cooked meal.

In Canada, the media has recently been talking about the importance of including lycopene-rich foods in your anti-aging regime.

But ask any European who eats a Mediterranean diet and they’ll tell you that lycopene is as much a part of their day to day as extra virgin olive oil.

I’m not even going to start suggesting the thousands of different ways you can increase your weekly intake of lycopene-rich foods because there has to be at least 10,000 different tomato base dishes out there. Lycopene might just be the easiest anti-aging power food to add to your anti-aging regime. If you’re not partial to tomatoes, you’ll be happy to know that lycopene can also be found in guava, grapefruit, watermelon and red oranges (who knew a glass of sangria could be that good for you?).

On a more serious note, a number of studies suggest that lycopene can cut the risk of gastrointestinal tract cancers by 30 to 60 per cent. Research also shows that lycopene can decrease men’s risk of prostate cancer by 21 per cent.

Don’t skimp on your tomatoes, they’re good for you!

More on lycopene. Here’s another good read on lycopene.