Fruits and vegetables are two types of foods that people won't stop recommending for improved health status. Although there are many reasons behind this fact, the presence of lycopene in them is one major reality behind the enormous health benefits that come with eating fruits and vegetables. Do you know what lycopene is? It is a nutrient and pigment found in plants and is responsible for the red colours of some fruits and vegetables.
The most important thing to us is helping you to improve your health and lifestyle with powerful and valuable information.
If you ever heard that there's a certain chemical behind the red colours of fruits like tomatoes, grapefruit, watermelon, strawberries and the like, you probably will have an idea of what lycopene can do. However, it goes beyond giving fruits their colour properties. Studies have shown that lycopene has many health benefits to the human body. This explains why health and nutrition experts are recommending the consumption of diets that contain this amazing chemical. In today's blog, we want to show you the jaw-dropping functions of lycopene to raise your health status.
Antioxidant Property
This is one of the most important functions and benefits we can derive from lycopene nutrients. When you have free radicals in the body, their oxidation can cause stress that usually leads to many health problems like heart disorder, cancer, Alzheimer etc. The antioxidant property of lycopene can help to prevent the oxidation of the free radicals and eliminate them, thus saving you from related diseases. Research also shows that lycopene can protect the body against some fungal infections and the negative effects of herbicides and pesticides.
Improves Bone Strength
Whenever we hear of bone strength, calcium is what usually comes to our mind. Although there's no falsehood in that, lycopene also plays a major role in the sustenance of your bone strength and prevention of bone loss. This is possible due to many reasons. The antioxidant property of this pigment helps to lower the rate at which bone dies and increases the level of total bone nutrient and density content. Since these two determine bone strength and wellness over time, the consumption of lycopene serves the bone by preserving its strength against old age. This means that you can save your bones by taking more fruits and vegetables that contain lycopene so that you can be free from bone loss and fracture problems in the future. With lycopene, women now have an alternative to the shortage of oestrogen hormone needed for bone health when they age beyond menstruation.
Enhance Sight Power
The ability to see things is what makes the human eye an integral and cherished part of the body. Since no one wants to lose their sight, there's a need to know more about what makes and mar your vision ability. You probably know the old wives tale that carrots are good for your eyesight. The compound people know to be responsible for this action of carrot is beta-carotene. The fact is that it doesn't stop there. Lycopene has also been discovered to be a carotenoid that aids human vision. The reason for this function can be traced to the anti-inflammatory properties of lycopene that aids it in lowering stress. This contributes to the overall health and improved efficiency of the human eye. Some studies also discovered lycopene to be an excellent aid in maintaining the wellness of vision in older people by preventing cataracts and other diseases associated with the eye. This is why it's not only functioning to enhance your sight but also supports your longevity.
Aids Improved Cognition
If you want to take a step further to improve your ability to grasp and comprehend information, lycopene-containing diets may be what you need to complete your list. Research has it that lycopene has the ability to improve cognitive brain capacity due to its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant properties. Lycopene can also lower stress and protection of proteins that stimulate body immunity to stay healthy. Reduced cognition and memory loss are some of the problems that are usually associated with ageing in humans. So, it's important that anyone who wants to preserve the sharpness and efficiency of their memory add lycopene diets to their food list.
Nourishes The Skin
Having nice, toned, bright, moisturised and smooth skin is an amazing goal that everyone wants for themselves. Since you want positive results for your skin, you will need to eliminate negative effects like wrinkles, pores and dryness as well. This is where lycopene comes in. It gives you the benefit of eliminating fine lines, wrinkles and shrinking of skin as you age. This is backed up by research by experts, where they discovered that lycopene and carotenoid found in the skin reduce the rate of natural ageing by preventing oxidation. The impressive part is that this pigment also helps to protect the skin from sunburns. Although you cannot substitute the consumption of fruits and vegetables with lycopene for the use of sunscreen as the protection it offers is limited, adding it to your diet is a sure way to reduce the effect of solar radiation on your skin and have a look many years younger.
Good For The Heart
Heart disease is one of the health problems that usually lead to the premature death of the victims. The good news is that lycopene can help you take care of the situation. It is found to have the ability to eliminate free radicals and bad cholesterol and replace them with good cholesterol. Due to the fact that free radicals and LDL cholesterol are one of the major causes of heart attack, getting lycopene into your blood is a great way to block the way to heart risks. As a lifesaver, lycopene is better prescribed to people with little antioxidants and a heightened level of oxidative stress. Another way lycopene helps the heart is by lowering your risk of having diseases like blood pressure and increasing the level of cytokine and cardiovascular wellness.
Prevents Cancer
If you want to save yourself from the problem of cancer, now is the time to start taking action. One possible way to do that is by taking more lycopene-containing fruits and vegetables. This is our advice from Healthy life Side. Several studies have shown that lycopene has the ability to prevent breast and prostate cancer. This function can be attributed to its antioxidant function helping to limit the growth of tumours that usually leads to cancer. This shows that those who consume more fruits that contain lycopene, especially tomatoes, are preparing their way to a life free of breast, lung, kidney and prostate cancer. For this reason, it's a good idea to have them on your diet list or take supplements to reduce your chance of having cancer problems in the future.
Prevents Hair Loss
This is another health problem usually faced by men. It's usually a result of an excessive amount of dihydrotestosterone which interferes with hair follicle growth and prevents the normal growth of hair, referred to as hair loss. The best way to tackle this problem is to block the excessiveness of dihydrotestosterone. This is where lycopene comes to play as it can help to block the excessive dihydrotestosterone production, thus inhibiting the rate at which an individual becomes bald. Experts have also explained that lycopene is an excellent nutrient for the prevention of dryness, breakage and dandruff on the hair, as well as stimulating the growth of disease-free hair.
Lycopene benefits humans in many ways to improve our health. Therefore, it's necessary to know the foods that can give you this amazing nutrient. You can get lycopene by consuming red and pink fruits and vegetables or by taking the supplement. However, Healthy Life Side advises that you go for real foods as it's more effective than taking supplements. It's also worth mentioning that you can lose the lycopene in your fruits and vegetables as a result of heat and removal of seeds and outer parts when processing. So, it's better to go for raw fruits where you will get the amount of lycopene in full.