Lycopene Consumption Linked to Lower Heart Disease Risk

A new study suggests that lycopene intake may be linked to a reduced risk for heart disease.

Lycopene is a carotenoid present in human serum and skin as well as the liver, adrenal glands, lungs, prostate and colon. Lycopene has been found to possess antioxidant and antiproliferative properties in animal and laboratory studies, although activity in humans remains controversial.

Humans obtain dietary lycopene primarily from tomatoes and tomato-based products. Lycopene is also found in apricots, pink grapefruit, guava, guava juice, rose hip puree, palm oil and watermelon

Numerous studies correlate high intake of lycopene-containing foods or high lycopene serum levels with reduced incidence of cancer, cardiovascular disease and macular degeneration. However, estimates of lycopene consumption have been primarily based on reported tomato intake, not on the use of lycopene supplements. Since tomatoes are sources of other nutrients, including vitamin C, folate and potassium, it is not clear that lycopene itself is beneficial.

In a recent study, researchers evaluated data collected from the Framingham Offspring Study to assess the potential association between lycopene intake and heart disease risk.

Throughout 10 years, 314 cardiovascular disease cases, 171 coronary heart disease cases and 99 stroke cases were identified. The researchers found that lycopene intake was associated with a reduced risk of cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease. A link between lycopene intake and stroke risk was lacking.

Although promising, the authors noted that it is still unclear if lycopene or other nutrients in tomatoes may be the cause of this reduced risk. Further research is warranted.

For more information about lycopene, please visit Natural Standard's Foods, Herbs & Supplements Database.

Comments

[ML]

Lycopene has a natural standard grade of C for heart disease prevention more specifically atherosclerosis. It is interesting that the study used tomatoes and not supplements because standardization would be hard. Folate actually has a grade A for heart disease prevention specifically for Hyperhomocysteinemia. Omega -3 fatty acid supplementation has cardiovascular protection. It is recommended for patients after a myocardial infarction.

[MS]

The Framingham Heart Study started in 1948 and the offsprings of that study were asked to participate in the Framingham Offsping study and out of the 6838 individuals 5135 were eligible to participate. This group goes under repeated examinations every three to four years and for this study the results were from 1991 to 2001. The lycopene intake was derived from tomato product consumption as the sum of tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato juice and pizza intake as well as multivitamin supplements. It would be interesting to measure lycopene consumption from only supplements compared to a group who had tomato products and assess its impact on cardiovascular events.

[km]

A carotenoid called Lycopene found mainly in tomato based products has shown to have antioxidant and antiproliferative properties in animals. A recent study evaluating lycopene consumption and risk of heart disease showed promising results. Lycopene intake was associated with a decrease risk of coronary and cardiovascular disease. However since tomato based products also contain vitamin C, folate and potassium, it is still unclear if it is the lycopene alone or a combination of the other nutrients that decreased the risk. Hopefully, it will be shown that tomato based products decrease heart risk because that will give me another reason to eat more pizza.

[AR]

I think this is another great study to demonstrate how important it is to eat our vegetables, because whether it is the lycopene or not that is reducing cardiovascular disease risk, there is a correlation between eating tomatoes and reducing CVD risk.

Also, thank you AM! I had no idea cooking a tomato could actually make lycopene more bioavailable! I thought that cooking any vegetable took away nutrients.

[kl]

Previous studies have shown that circulating levels of lycopene generally have an inverse relationship with CVD risk (i.e. higher levels, lower risk), but the trials looking at lycopene intake do not see the same association. Why would this be? My thought, as mentioned previously in the blog, is that tomato intake is the normal measure of lycopene intake, however tomatoes have measurable nutritious effects beyond that of lycopene. Tomatoes contain a good source of Vitamins A, C and K. They are naturally low in sodium, calories, saturated fat, and cholesterol content. Additionally, tomatoes supply measurable amounts of vitamin B6, folate, magnesium, potassium, thiamin, phosphorus, niacin and copper. Any one of these added benefits could be contributing to the cardiovascular health seen with tomato consumption!

[pc]

It is interesting to see that lycopene decreased the risk of cardiovascular disease and coronary heart disease but not stroke risk. I wonder if this is due to the smaller population of stroke patients involved in this study. Perhaps it would be beneficial to repeat this study in a stroke-only population to see if there are similar effects; it is hard to imagine that lycopene is helpful for cardiovascular disease and not stroke risk.

[AM]

I love tomatoes! The best way to get nutritional value from them is to cook them, since the hard cell walls trap nutrients within them. Lycopene becomes four time more bioavailable when you puree tomatoes. Pasta sauce is a great way to get some nutrition! Just serve it over spaghetti squash or some whole grain pasta for a hearty meal.

[ac]

I was curious to learn more about lycopene so I checked ou the Natural Standard database. I learned it has a Natural Standard Evidence Grade of "C" for unclear or conflicting scientific evidence for multiple conditions including antioxidant, cancer prevention, asthma, hypertension, infertility, eye disorders, coronary heart disease, and sun protection. It is interesting that it is being studied for such a variety of different uses.

[BC]

This is an interesting study. I think further studies should be done with lycopene to see if there is a strong correlation for reducing the incidence of cancer and cardiovascular risks. Perhaps, research can be done using another form of foods that contain a high lycopene content such as guava. I would like to see what the results would look like if a comparison study was done.

[km]

According to the Natural Standard, other indications of Lycopene include BPH, exercise-induced asthma, and breast/cervical cancer prevention with evidence grade of C for unclear or conflicting scientific evidence have also been reported. It will be interesting to see how the results of this study will change the evidence grade for Lycopene use in heart diseases. Nonetheless, tomato is a very common vegetable found in many dishes, it might be a good add to the diet of patients with high risk of developing heart disease.