An antioxidant called Bob
Posted by kathryn in Blogging and Nutrition
Lycopene and me, we go way back and I think it is my favourite antioxidant. Firstly it’s the word itself, I love the look of it, the sound of it, the way the word feels when you wrap your mouth around it, ly-co-pene. It’s one of the main reasons this blog is called “Limes and Lycopene”, I just love the word.
But it’s not only that, lycopene is a strapping, robust, no nonsense, no faffing about antioxidant. No prissy, princess-like behaviour for lycopene, instead you can expose it to sunlight, heat it up, subject it to full scale commercial manufacturing processes and lycopene just gets better and better.
Lycopene is a bright red carotenoid antioxidant that’s found in tomatoes and other red fruit. It’s the most common carotenoid in our bodies, and one of the most potent.
Antioxidants are really good for us and protect us from many degenerative diseases, so we want a lot of these in our diet. They are found in a number of different foods, so if you’re eating a varied diet with lots of fruit and vegetables, then there’s a good chance you’re getting plenty of these little critters.
The problem is many antioxidants, like vitamin C, are fragile, heat them up a bit, expose them to some sunlight and they start degenerating and reducing in efficacy. Whereas lycopene is not only undiminished by cooking and processing, it actually becomes more available to us. Cooked tomatoes are a better source than fresh tomatoes and manufactured tomato products, like tomato soup, sauce and juice are even better again: tomato sauce has four times more bioavailable lycopene, than fresh tomatoes.
My history with lycopene was cemented at the first cooking class I ever held. When asked if it was better to eat vegies raw, I launched into the story of lycopene, when suddenly I realised my mind was blank and the name of the antioxidant was nowhere to be found. I stood there with a kitchen knife in one hand, staring at the tomatoes in front of me and yet the word lycopene would not come back. My lovely, helpful friend Carolyn suggested the name Bob be used in the interim, so I spent the next few minutes discussing the wonders of Bob the antioxidant.
In terms of this blog, the name “Limes and Lycopene” also represents the subjects of this blog – it’s about food, about fresh ingredients, about cooking, but it’s also about why that food is good or bad for us and how to improve wellbeing and make better health choices.
09 June, 2006
Comments
Hi Kathryn.
I was looking up health benefits of lycopene and came upon your site. I have no question at the moment but merely an interest in what you do and I commend you on your endevour to inform people about nutrition and all things related.
I have a major interest in the “food arena” and have just commenced teaching cooking classes. Mediterranean cooking is my speciality. Apart from doing cooking classes I am also trying to use the Mediterranean model to get people to change the way they shop, cook, eat and live in general. I guess a bit like “French Women Don’t Get Fat” kind of thing. My course is called “Eat, Live and Be Mediterranean”.
I really like the look of your zucchini fritters and shall give them a go some time this week. If they taste as good as they look I may well add them to my recipe repetoire.
I live on the gold coast and I look forward to getting to know you as I think your site has much to offer me in my line of interest.
Mariana.
Thanks so much for your comment Mariana. It sounds like you’re doing some interesting work up there on the Gold Coast. I’d love to know more about your cooking classes and how they are being received.
I am fascinated by lycopene as well. It is a rising star in the natural colorant world, and I have decided to buy it from a manufacturer and sell it to consumers. It is much more benefitial when it is with the other components of food, but it is much better than artificial reds. Lycopene as a dye would be better, I think, than using natural coloring foods like beetroot or tomato because you could add the color into a food without adding flavor and other characteristics. Since the manufacturers only want to sell it by the kg, a reseller, like myself, is a useful thing.
Just yesterday, I was working a health fare with an organic chef, who was touting the benefits of eating raw. I kept thinking that most people will not stick with a raw diet. You have to give people GOOD FOOD that is tasty, warm and nutritious as a “sustainable” diet. Thank you for this great reminder to me of the benefits of cooked tomatoes. I had many women asking me for recipes for Italian food and the choices of beautiful dishes with cooked tomatoes is endless. I just love your blog.
Raw foods are great, many health benefits to eating a serve a day. But you need the cooked as well. It’s all about variety, variety, variety. Different foods, prepared in different ways is the most certain route to getting all the nutrients you need.
Hi Kathryn, what great articles you have on your website. It must take a lot of work. It was interesting reading about lycopene and the fact that it is so heat stable. The antioxidants and other beneficial properties in TAHITIAN NONI Juice are also heat stable. Our product is sometimes shot down because the pasteurisation reduces the vitamin C content, but good old C isn’t the only antioxidant present. Our noni juice contains some novel compounds only found in noni fruit so far, which are not adversely affected by heat. There’s more info. about this here: http://www.yourhealth.com.au/information-on-natural-medicine-herbs-detail.php?name=Noni if you’re interested.
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