Tomatoes For Stroke

Do you want to cut down on your chances of having a stroke? Then maybe the key is to bite into a tomato.

And the beauty of it is that it doesn't have to be a whole tomato. It could even be tomato sauce, or even better, a slice of pizza, that can help cut your risk of having a stroke. Researchers have found that the antioxidant in tomatoes, lycopene, reduced the chances of men having a stroke. And although the study didn't look at women, the same is probably true for them as well.

This study, published in the journal Neurology, found that men with the highest levels of lycopene also had the lowest levels of strokes. Tomatoes are rich in lycopenes. It is also in tomato products like marinara sauce, pizza sauce and even ketchup. But if tomatoes aren't your thing, then you can also find high levels of lycopenes in other fruits like watermelon, papaya, grapefruit and mangos.

This study first started off to see if vitamins A or E cut stroke risk. Surprisingly they didn't, but the researchers instead found out about how beneficial lycopenes were in keeping this devastating problem at bay.

So the next time you sit down to eat, grab that tomato. It could be doing a lot more for your health than you think.