Text and Photos by Henrylito D. Tacio
If you want to prevent stroke or reduce the risk of having a stroke, why don’t you eat tomatoes? That’s the recommendation of a Finnish study published in the journal Neurology.
The study provided more support for diets rich in fruits and vegetables. In tomatoes, the key factor appears to be the powerful carotenoid called lycopene. Carotenoid is a family of pigments that give fruits and vegetables their brilliant red, orange, and yellow coloring.
Lycopene is also a powerful antioxidant that eliminates dangerous free radicals that can damage DNA and other fragile cell structures. “The shape of the lycopene molecule makes it very effective in being able to quench free radicals,” Dr. Edward Giovannucci, a professor of nutrition, told Heidi Godman, executive editor of Harvard Health Letter. “We don’t really understand it entirely yet, but lycopene may have specific properties that protect the cell in a way other antioxidants may not.”
The Finnish research – based on data from more than 1,000 middle-aged men, followed for an average of 12 years – indicated that people with the highest levels of lycopene in their blood have a 55% lower chance of suffering a stroke.
“This study adds to the evidence that a diet high in fruits and vegetables is associated with a lower risk of stroke,” pointed out study author Jouni Karppi, of the University of Eastern Finland in Kuopio.
Among the 258 men with the lowest levels of lycopene in their blood, nearly one in 10 had a stroke, the study found out. But among the 259 with the highest levels of the antioxidant, that number fell to around one in 25.
“The correlation between lycopene levels and stroke risk was even stronger when the researchers only included strokes due to blood clots, leaving out those caused by hemorrhages,” said the news dispatch which reported the study.
The participants with the highest levels of lycopene had a 59% lower risk of stroke from a blood clot than the men with the lowest levels of the antioxidant, the dispatch added. In total, 67 out of the men suffered strokes during the course of the study.
The finding came as a surprise – the researchers initially wanted to know if other antioxidants affected strokes, such as alpha carotene, beta carotene, vitamin A, and vitamin E. But they didn’t find any link with the stroke risk.
The study is good news since the Stroke Society of the Philippines (SSP) reported that stroke is now the country’s second leading cause of death and first cause of morbidity. In a data released by the World Health Organization (WHO) in 2017, stroke deaths in the country reached 87,402 or 14.12% of total deaths. The age adjusted death rate is 134.74 per 100,000 of population, thus ranks the Philippines No. 29 in the world.
Stroke is also called brain attack. It happens when a blood clots the flow of blood, and therefore oxygen, to the brain. If people get to the hospital quickly, doctors can treat them with clot-dissolving drugs that may be able to stop the stroke in progress.
To avoid having a stroke, some health professionals are recommending people to keep eating vegetables and fruits containing lycopene. Remember what Hippocrates, the father of medicine, once said: “Let thy medicine be thy food.” He made this statement thousands of years ago and he must have lycopene-containing crops in his mind when he said those words.
“All natural foods with a rich pink to red color generally contain some lycopene,” wrote Alina Petre for healthline.com. Aside from tomatoes, the following also contain the most lycopene per 100 grams: guava (5.2 milligrams), watermelon (4.5 milligrams), papaya (1.8 milligrams), pink grapefruit (1.1 milligrams), and cooked sweet red peppers (0.5 milligrams).
Tomatoes are still the biggest source of lycopene and the riper the tomato is, the more lycopene it contains. Per 100 grams, sun-dried tomatoes contain 45.9 milligrams. Tomato puree has 21.8 milligrams while fresh tomatoes has 3.0 milligrams and canned tomatoes has the lesser amount: 2.7 milligrams.
But larger studies are still needed to confirm the findings and to figure out if the stroke protection is due to lycopene or healthy lifestyle habits. “Remember, a high lycopene consumer is likely to eat more vegetables and not be a smoker,” Dr. Giovannucci points out.
Now, are you ready for your tomato juice? – ###
