Lycopene’s Benefits For The Gut, Heart, Brain, & More

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The 10almonds Team

What Doesn’t Lycopene Do?

Lycopene is an antioxidant carotenoid famously found in tomatoes; it actually appears in even higher levels in watermelon, though. If you are going to get it from tomato, know that cooking improves the lycopene content rather than removing it (watermelon, on the other hand, can be enjoyed as-is and already has the higher lycopene content).

Antioxidant properties

Let’s reiterate the obvious first, for the sake of being methodical and adding a source. Lycopene is a potent antioxidant with multiple health benefits:

Lycopene: A Potent Antioxidant with Multiple Health Benefits

…and as such, it does all the things you might reasonably expect and antioxidant to do. For example…

Anti-inflammatory properties

In particular, it regulates macrophage activity, reducing inflammation while improving immune response:

Lycopene Regulates Macrophage Immune Response through the Autophagy Pathway Mediated by RIPK1

As can be expected of most antioxidants and anti-inflammatory agents, it also has…

Anticancer properties

Scientific papers tend to be “per cancer type”, so we’re just going to give one example, but there’s pretty much evidence for its utility against most if not all types of cancer. We’re picking prostate cancer though, as it’s one that’s been studied the most in the context of lycopene intake—in this study, for example, it was found that men who enjoyed at least two servings of lycopene-rich tomato sauce per week were 30% less likely to develop prostate cancer than those who didn’t:

Dietary lycopene intake and risk of prostate cancer defined by ERG protein expression

If you’d like to see something more general, however, then check out:

Potential Use of Tomato Peel, a Rich Source of Lycopene, for Cancer Treatment

It also fights Candida albicans

Ok, this is not (usually) so life-and-death as cancer, but reducing our C. albicans content (specifically: in our gut) has a lot of knock-on effects for other aspects of our health, so this isn’t one to overlook:

Lycopene induces apoptosis in Candida albicans through reactive oxygen species production and mitochondrial dysfunction

The title does not make this clear, but yes: this does mean it has an antifungal effect. We mention this because often cellular apoptosis is good for an overall organism, but in this case, it simply kills the Candida.

It’s good for the heart

A lot of studies focus just on triglyceride markers (which lycopene improves), but more tellingly, here’s a 10-year observational study in which diets rich in lycopene were associated to a 17–26% lower risk of heart disease:

Relationship of lycopene intake and consumption of tomato products to incident CVD

…and a 39% overall reduced mortality in, well, we’ll let the study title tell it:

Higher levels of serum lycopene are associated with reduced mortality in individuals with metabolic syndrome

…which means also:

It’s good for the brain

As a general rule of thumb, what’s good for the heart is good for the brain (because the brain needs healthy blood flow to stay healthy, and is especially vulnerable when it doesn’t get that), and in this case that rule of thumb is also borne out by the post hoc evidence, specifically yielding a 31% decreased incidence of stroke:

Dietary and circulating lycopene and stroke risk: a meta-analysis of prospective studies

Is it safe?

As a common food product, it is considered very safe.

If you drink nothing but tomato juice all day for a long time, your skin will take on a reddish hue, which will go away if you stop getting all your daily water intake in tomato juice.

In all likelihood, even if you went to extremes, you would get sick from the excess of vitamin A (generally present in the same foods) sooner than you’d get sick from the excess of lycopene.

Want to try some?

We don’t sell it, and also we recommend simply enjoying tomatoes, watermelons, etc, but if you do want a supplement, here’s an example product on Amazon

Enjoy!

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  • The Brain Fog Fix – by Dr. Mike Dow

    The 10almonds Team

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    The three weeks mentioned in the subtitle is in fact a week-by-week plan:

    1. Adjusting diet (inclusions and exclusions) and cognitive strategies
    2. Focusing on sleep, exercise, and memory-boosting “brain games”
    3. Bringing in the social aspect, and connection to something larger than oneself

    In this reviewer’s opinion, a week is too short a time to completely overhaul one’s diet; most changes need to be gradual, so doing several at once in a week is quite extreme. But, even if it takes a month for each stage instead of a week, the method is reasonable.

    The nutritional advice is good, and consistent with current best science on the topic. There’s a lot about keeping even blood sugars and improving insulin sensitivity, as well as doing what is best for the heart and blood in general (e.g. fiber, managing triglycerides, doing the right kinds of exercise, etc).

    As a psychotherapist, he also talks a fair bit about neurotransmitters, and making sure one’s gut and brain are fed appropriately to keep the correct balance (remembering for example that serotonin is made in the gut, and dopamine is made in the brain). Unlike many of his colleagues, he’s not a fan of medicating beyond absolute necessity.

    The style is a little salesy for this reviewer’s personal taste—but then again, perhaps he made the reasonable assumption that a person reading a book entitled “the brain fog fix” needs their attention grabbing and re-grabbing every paragraph or so. As such, maybe it’s not a bad call.

    Bottom line: if you have brain fog and would like to not have brain fog, this book offers a scientifically sound, evidence-based, holistic approach that can certainly improve things.

    Click here to check out The Brain Fog Fix, and fix your brain fog!

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  • Chickpeas vs Mung Beans – Which is Healthier?

    The 10almonds Team

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    Our Verdict

    When comparing chickpeas to mung beans, we picked the chickpeas.

    Why?

    Both are great! But there’s a clear winner here:

    In terms of macros, chickpeas have more protein, carbs, and fiber, as well as the lower glycemic index. The difference is very small, but it’s a nominal win for chickpeas.

    When it comes to vitamins, chickpeas have more of vitamins A, B2, B6, B9, C, E, K, and choline, while mung beans have more of vitamins B1, B3, and B5. Again the differences aren’t huge, but by strength of numbers they’re in chickpeas’ favor, so it’s another win for chickpeas here.

    In the category of minerals, chickpeas have more calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium, selenium, and zinc, while mung beans are not higher in any mineral. An easy win for chickpeas on this one.

    Adding up the sections makes for a clear overall win for chickpeas, but by all means enjoy either or both; diversity is good!

    Want to learn more?

    You might like to read:

    Plant vs Animal Protein: Head to Head

    Enjoy!

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  • Speedy Easy Ratatouille

    The 10almonds Team

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    One of the biggest contributing factors to unhealthy eating? The convenience factor. To eat well, it seems, one must have at least two of the following: money, time, and skill. So today we have a health dish that’s cheap, quick, and easy!

    (You won’t need a rat in a hat to help you with this one)

    You will need

    • 3 ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped
    • 2 zucchini, halved and chopped into thick batons
    • 2 portobello mushrooms, sliced into ½” slices
    • 1 large red pepper, cut into thick chunks
    • 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
    • 2 tbsp finely chopped parsley
    • 2 tsp garlic paste
    • 2 tsp thyme leaves, destalked
    • 1 tsp rosemary leaves, destalked
    • 1 tsp red chili flakes
    • 1 tsp black pepper
    • Optional: 1 tsp MSG, or 1 tsp low sodium salt (the MSG is the healthier option as it contains less sodium than even low sodium salt)
    • Optional: other vegetables, chopped. Use what’s in your fridge! This is a great way to use up leftovers. Particularly good options include chopped eggplant, chopped red onion, and/or chopped carrot.

    Method

    (we suggest you read everything at least once before doing anything)

    1) Put the olive oil into a sauté pan and set the heat on medium. When hot but smoking, add the mushrooms and any optional vegetables (but not the others from the list yet), and fry for 5 minutes.

    Note: if you aren’t pressed for time, then you can diverge from the “speedy” part of this by cooking each of the vegetables separately before combining, which allows each to keep its flavor more distinct.

    2) Add the garlic, followed by the zucchini, red pepper, chili flakes, and thyme; stir periodically (you shouldn’t have to stir constantly) for 10 minutes.

    3) Add the tomatoes and a cup of water to the pan, along with any MSG/salt. Cover with the lid and allow to simmer for a further 10 minutes.

    4) Serve, adding the garnish.

    Enjoy!

    Want to learn more?

    For those interested in some of the science of what we have going on today:

    Take care!

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  • The Coffee-Cortisol Connection, And Two Ways To Tweak It For Health

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    The 10almonds Team

    Health opinions on coffee vary from “it’s an invigorating, healthful drink” to “it will leave you a shaking frazzled wreck”. So, what’s the truth and can we enjoy it healthily? Dr. Alan Mandell weighs in:

    Enjoy it, but watch out!

    Dr. Mandell is speaking only for caffeinated coffee in this video, and to this end, he’s conflating the health effects of coffee and caffeine. A statistically reasonable imprecision, since most people drink coffee with its natural caffeine in, but we’ll make some adjustment to his comments below, to disambiguate which statements are true for coffee generally, and which are true for caffeine:

    • Drinking coffee caffeine first thing in the morning may not be ideal due to dehydration from overnight water loss.
    • Coffee caffeine is a diuretic, which means an increase in urination, thus further dehydrating the body.
    • Coffee contains great antioxidants, which are of course beneficial for the health in general.
    • Cortisol, the body’s stress hormone, is generally at its peak in the morning. This is, in and of itself, good and correct—it’s how we wake up.
    • Coffee caffeine consumption raises cortisol levels even more, leading to increased alertness and physical readiness, but it is possible to have too much of a good thing, and in this case, problems can arise because…
    • Elevated cortisol from early coffee caffeine drinking can build tolerance, leading to the need for more coffee caffeine over time.
    • It’s better, therefore, to defer drinking coffee caffeine until later in the morning when cortisol levels naturally drop.
    • All of this means that drinking coffee caffeine first thing can disrupt the neuroendocrine system, leading to fatigue, depression, and general woe.
    • Hydrate first thing in the morning before consuming coffee caffeine to keep the body balanced and healthy.

    What you can see from this is that coffee and caffeine are not, in fact, interchangeable words, but the basic message is clear and correct: while a little spike of cortisol in the morning is good, natural, and even necessary, a big spike is none of those things, and caffeine can cause a big spike, and since for most people caffeine is easy to build tolerance to, there will indeed consistently be a need for more, worsening the problem.

    In terms of hydration, it’s good to have water (or better yet, herbal tea) on one’s nightstand to drink when one wakes up.

    If coffee is an important morning ritual for you, consider finding a good decaffeinated version for at least your first cup (this writer is partial to Lavazza’s “Dek Intenso”—which is not the same as their main decaf line, by the way, so do hold out for the “Dek Intenso” if you want to try my recommendation).

    Decaffeinated coffee is hydrating and will not cause a cortisol spike (unless for some reason you find coffee as a concept very stressful in which case, yes, the stressor will cause a stress response).

    Anyway, for more on all of this, enjoy:

    Click Here If The Embedded Video Doesn’t Load Automatically!

    Want to learn more?

    You might also like to read:

    Take care!

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  • Feel Better In 5 – by Dr. Rangan Chatterjee

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    The 10almonds Team

    We’ve featured Dr. Rangan Chatterjee before, and here’s a great book of his.

    The premise is a realistic twist on a classic, the classic being “such-and-such, in just 5 minutes per day!”

    In this case, Dr. Chatterjee offers many lifestyle interventions that each take just 5 minutes, with the idea that you implement 3 of them per day (your choice which and when), and thus gradually build up healthy habits. Of course, once things take as habits, you’ll start adding in more, and before you know it, half your lifestyle has changed for the better.

    Which, you may be thinking “my lifestyle’s not that bad”, but if you improve the health outcomes of, say, 20 areas of your life by just a few percent each, you know much better health that adds up to? We’ll give you a clue: it doesn’t add up, it compounds, because each improves the other too, for no part of the body works entirely in isolation.

    And Dr. Chatterjee does tackle the body systematically, by the way; interventions for the gut, heart, brain, and so on.

    As for what these interventions look like; it is very varied. One might be a physical exercise; another, a mental exercise; another, a “make this health 5-minute thing in the kitchen”, etc, etc.

    Bottom line: this is the most supremely easy of easy-ins to healthier living, whatever your starting point—because even if you’re doing half of these interventions, chances are you aren’t doing the other half, and the idea is to pick and choose how and when you adopt them in any case, just picking three 5-minute interventions each day with no restrictions. In short, a lot of value to had here when it comes to real changes to one’s serious measurable health.

    Click here to check out Feel Better In 5, and indeed feel better in 5!

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  • The Only Exercise You Need To Strengthen Every Hip Muscle (Ages 50+)

    10almonds is reader-supported. We may, at no cost to you, receive a portion of sales if you purchase a product through a link in this article.

    The 10almonds Team

    One exercise, no equipment, and easy to do without even getting changed:

    You may be on the fence about this one

    Standing on one leg is great, of course, and then…

    Basic exercise:

    • Imagine stepping over an electric fence side to side.
    • Lift each leg high but slowly to engage hip muscles.
    • Adjust the height and speed based on ease/difficulty.

    Variations:

    • Step over an imaginary side fence.
    • Step over an imaginary front fence.
    • Step sideways in the opposite direction.
    • Step backward to complete a square.
    • Ensure both legs are worked evenly.

    As a bonus, it also improves balance!

    For more on all this plus visual demonstrations, enjoy:

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    Want to learn more?

    You might also like:

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    Take care!

    Don’t Forget…

    Did you arrive here from our newsletter? Don’t forget to return to the email to continue learning!

    Learn to Age Gracefully

    Join the 98k+ American women taking control of their health & aging with our 100% free (and fun!) daily emails: