Disease Proof

Do you like tomatoes? I do. Honestly, I eat them almost everyday—I love those hard slicing tomatoes. Now, tomato devotion isn’t exactly a bad thing. Dr. Fuhrman considers tomatoes one of his top ten super foods for health and longevity:

Top Seven Foods for Good Health and Longevity

• Black raspberries
• Strawberries
• Blueberries
• Flax Seeds
• Green Leafy Vegetables
• Tomatoes
• Broccoli sprouts

Cancer protection—a good idea! The Cancer Blog seems to think so too. Check out this post talking about the anti-cancer properties of this special veggie—oh, I mean fruit. Look:

Tomato fruits (yes, they are not vegetables) contain lycopene, a pigment and phytochemical that is extremely healthy and can even be found in higher-end nutritional supplements and holistic cancer-preventing compounds. Is it really that good?


From all I've read, yes it is. Just like blueberries, tomatoes are excellent and natural ways to help ward off cancer while being tasty and ultimately nutritious at the same time.

Pretty cool—right? Dr. Fuhrman gives tomatoes more praise in this post. From Ten Super Foods to Use in Your Recipes and Menus:

Tomatoes have been a hot topic in recent years because their consumption has been linked to dramatic reduction in the incidence of common cancers. One of the tomatoes' heavily investigated anti-cancer phytochemicals is lycopene, which has been shown to be protective against cancer, including prostate cancer, breast cancer, endometrial cancer, lung cancer, and colorectal cancers.

I can't remember if the lypocene is only available to the bod if cooked...? Anyone know? What about its other benefits?
I eat most of mine raw.

Studies have shown that more lycopene is made available when tomatoes are cooked. But do they look at what has been destroyed or made less available after cooking? Any way, stay focused on the whole package instead of just on a single nutrient (lycopene). But if you are interested in getting as more lycopene, then add watermelon to your diet which has more per serving that tomatoes.

Another way to make these beneficial nutrients more absorable, add some avocado. As pointed out at Dr Greger's site (http://www.drgreger.org/june2005.html), "Lycopene doubles as an extremely powerful carotenoid antioxidant and the red pigment that makes fruits and vegetables like watermelons and tomatoes red. Adding avocado to salsa more than quadrupled the amount of lycopene absorbed by test subjects."

Thank you, Sam. Yes, that's why I asked about its other benefits :); I wanted to know about the whole package, but that post deals with lypocene.

Great info about the avos! Thanks. I've been eating them more often, lately, it just so happens. And I also have a watermelon amongst my melon cache ;) Summer fruits are finally here. Thanks for that info!