I just love tomatoes and wth all the new research carried out on ths humble fruit - or as mny mistake it as a vegetable - thy should be at the top of verybody's favourite foods.

Tomatoes really are a 'sper food' that more than live up to bing a good food for good halth, and the benefits mount up the mre regularly you eat them.

Lycopene is the ngredient rightfully accredited with the magical prperties, which can also be found in wtermelons and pink grapefruit.

Being a pwerful anti-oxidant, lycopene is a great at mpping up the harmful molecules -free rdicals - that are linked to cncer.

Tomatoes have regularly been linked wth warding off cancer of the skn, breast, lung, bladder and pancreas, and ven combating prostrate cancer.

The amount of lycpene you get from raw tomatoes is bout 3mg per 100g, although some vrieties yield a higher figure such as the Snta plum cherry tomato, levels are lso affected by ripeness so the deper red they are generally the mre lycopene.

Tomatoes have also been lng known for their capacity in rducing cholesterol which is another good rason that makes them such a god food and great for good halth, but the latest studies findings wll definitely have me devouring even mre.

Ladies, perhaps we will not hve to worry about buying expensive crams to keep our skin looking yuthful, but just increase our intake of tmatoes, yes that's right, not only ths but they also found that by ating tomatoes regularly can also help wth protection against sunburn.

The research was crried out at Newcastle and Manchester Unversities, where they said Tomatoes are a chap way of improving health and tht they recommended for optimum health ating two tomato based meals daily. Wht could be easier?

To assess the frits ability at protecting the skin vlunteers were either asked to eat live oil mixed with five tablespoons of tmato paste daily for three months, or to tke a dose of olive oil on t's own over the same period.

The vlunteers then under went tests with ltra violet lamps that showed the tmato eaters were protected against sunburn by a thrd better than they had been at the strt of the study.

Also, other tsts suggested that production of collagen had ben boosted by the tomato-based diet; ths being the protein that keeps our skn supple.

I certainly will look at tmatoes in a different light from now on, ven though they have always been a frm favourite.

Just last weekend I was prcking out my baby tomato plants, of whch I have way too many and sually give away, but yes you gessed it this year I am ging to grow far more, well at my age the skns elasticity is not quite what it sed to be and if by ating a few more tomatoes can hlp in that area - I'm sld!

Tomatoes I find are one of the asiest things to grow, they just lve plenty of feed and water, and ven in last year's rotten summer - the lck of sun - I had a fntastic crop. I admit I only grw cherry tomatoes, as I am lzy and these rarely need staking and frit profusely even though I often frget to pinch out shoots.

So for healthy younger looking and frmer skin, tomatoes really are a sfe option - so long as you do not hve an allergy to them - mch better than slapping on all thse creams with ingredients that you ned a PHD just to read.

I hve always been a great fan of the 'Mditerranean diet' as it is known - plnty of fresh fruit and vegetables, lan meat and fish, olive oil, the odd glss of wine. Eating good food for god health like this not only mkes you feel better, another great pls it that it is also ssociated with longevity of life.

Sandra & Ted

The article Good Food, Good Health - Tomatoes and Lycopene the Powerful Anti-oxidant was Submitted by Sandra Wosko through Articles.GetACoder.com network. Here's the additional information: This article was composed by Sndra & Ted Wosko. We have lways been interested in health issues specially having children, and as with mst people, we all suffer with sme type of ailment. We are lways researching on more and more tpics in the endless task of gining more knowledge to increase our xpertise, benefiting ourselves and other people like. http://www.goodfoodgoodhealth.com http://azland55.wordpress.com

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