Weird Benefit of Eating Ketchup
A tomato a day keeps the cardiologist away. Ketchup and other processed tomato products can help prevent heart disease and skin cancer thanks to the magic ingredient lycopene.
Researchers from the Harvard School of Public Health in Boston conducted a five-year study of 28,000 women and concluded that eating something with tomatoes in it every day may lower your risk for heart disease by up to 50 percent, reports MSNBC. Yes, ketchup on your french fries counts!
Lycopene is what gives certain vegetables and fruits their red color. While tomatoes have more lycopene than any other food, other sources include watermelon, papaya, pink grapefruit, and guava.
People whose diets are rich in this potent antioxidant also have a lower risk for a variety of cancers, especially cancers of the prostate, cervix, skin, bladder, breast, lung, and digestive tract. Eating a lot of lycopene-rich foods also might help protect skin from sun damage, notes MSNBC.
Doctors aren’t sure how much lycopene we need to protect our hearts, but it seems that eating seven to 10 servings of lycopene-rich foods each week is best. The older we get, the more we need. Lycopene is best absorbed into our blood when the food is cooked or processed, rather than raw. Why? The heat helps break down the cell walls, which releases the lycopene and makes it easier for the body to absorb.
That means you should choose tomato paste, tomato sauce, canned tomatoes, and even ketchup over fresh, raw tomatoes. Eat up! There is no evidence that lycopene is harmful at any dose.
sachii i was about to try this but then i changed my mind 