Eat Clean Challenge: Day 10

Lycopene is a powerful anti-oxidant that has been shown to play a role in preventing cancer and heart disease.

Eat clean day #10 –Boost your lycopene with red foods!

Eat clean action step: 

Cooked tomatoes contain even more lycopene vs. fresh tomatoes. The heating process raises the level of lycopene by 35%!

Lycopne is a powerful anti-oxidant that has been shown to play a role in preventing cancer and heart disease.  Anti-oxidants help to neutralize cellular damage and offer a disease preventative role. Eating lycopene rich foods also helps to prevent the signs of aging that can occur from too much sun exposure.

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Foods that are high in lycopene will typically be reddish in color. While tomatoes offer the highest source of lycopene other lycopene rich foods include sun-dried tomatoes, guava, sweet red peppers, watermelon, papaya and grapefruit.  Tomato sauce is also a readily available form of lycopne that offers heart healthy benefits.  Lycopene is fat-soluble so eating it with a small amount of oil (i.e. olive oil) increases its absorption.

Get Dr. Joey’s quick and easy tomato and basil soup recipe here.