Tomatoes: Tomatoes Beat Supplements For Heart Health

Lycopene, the phytochemical that gives tomatoes their red colour, is a powerful antioxidant... but research indicates that it's most effective when accompanied with other nutrients.

And that's an important point that all women need to know, because an impressive new study has confirmed the growing evidence that a lycopene-rich diet may be a key nutritional tool in preventing heart disease.

Drawn and quartered
Using data from the ongoing Women's Health Study, researchers at the Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) and Harvard Medical School followed more than 28,000 middle-aged and elderly women for nearly five years, collecting blood samples to measure plasma lycopene levels.

At the beginning of the trial, none of the women had any form of heart disease. When the testing period was completed, 483 women were diagnosed with cardiovascular disease (CVD).

The compiled data showed that when the subjects were divided into quartiles - ranging from those with the lowest lycopene level to those with the highest - the women in the upper three quartiles had a 50 percent reduction in the risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) compared with women in the lowest quartile.

In their conclusion, the researchers note that even though the study clearly shows that lycopene concentrations are associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in women, further trials are needed with other groups, such as younger people or men, for instance.

Nevertheless, this impressive result expands on a 2002 study conducted by BWH in which the results also strongly suggested that lycopene intake may offer significant protection against heart disease in women.

Warm it up
Dr Michael Gaziano, one of the authors of the 2002 BWH study, told the Vitamin Nutrition Information Service that even though there are no dietary recommendations for lycopene, the research certainly suggests that consuming lycopene-rich foods would be a 'prudent measure' for women.

But before you head out the door in search of lycopene, there are a few important points to take into consideration.

First: Tomatoes provide the best natural source of lycopene, but the benefits you receive from tomatoes may depend on how they're prepared. According to research from Cornell University, the body absorbs lycopene more efficiently (and benefits from a higher antioxidant activity) when tomatoes are cooked, as opposed to eating them raw.

This is an especially important point these days, when more and more people are avoiding high carbohydrate dishes that are often served with tomato sauce, such as spaghetti, lasagna, pizza... mamma mia, I could go on and on. One colleague of mine tells me that he's reworked a few stir-fry recipes by adding sliced tomatoes or a cup of tomato sauce toward the end of the cooking time.

And studies suggest that eating cooked tomatoes along with a source of fat - such as cheese or meat - may also improve lycopene absorption.

The whole tomato
One final note about lycopene: You'll probably get higher antioxidant protection from the lycopene in tomatoes than from a lycopene supplement.

A recent Ohio State University study in the US revealed that lycopene was most effective (in this case, against prostate cancer in rats) when tomatoes were the source, compared to using a supplement of lycopene. The researchers believe their trial implies that the benefits of lycopene are more pronounced when the phytochemical is accompanied by other chemicals in the tomato.

The test doesn't dismiss the usefulness of lycopene supplements. But if you really want the full benefit of lycopene, apparently it's best to get it from a whole-food source. In addition to tomatoes, watermelon and pink grapefruit also contain lycopene.