Three false, and short-sighted, bel...

Three false, and short-sighted, beliefs about carotenoids could ascertain hazardous to your health: (1) thinking that beta-carotene is the solitary carotenoid; (2) that carotenoids' benefits are limited to guarding you against cancer and heart disease -- crucial as that is; and (3) that you can find beta-carotene sole in carrots, sweet potatoes, and cantaloupe.

It is a frequent mistake to think that beta-carotene, derived from fresh and yellow-orange fruits and vegetables, is the simply carotenoid, because it was the first single in kind to be intensely researched, widely used, and heavily publicized. Actually, there are more than 500 carotenoids, sole 50 of which act as precursors to vitamin A, according to Elizabeth Somer M.A., RD and Robert Garrison, Jr RPh in The Nutrition Desk respect (1995). Only in the last 20 years has the biological activity of beta-carotene and other carotenoids -- independent of their vitamin A activity -- been recognized.

Beta-carotene is near in such foods as apricots, carrots melon and papaya, as well as in spinach, Italian squash, kale, and pumpkin. greatest in quantity of us don't always remember in what manner rich green and leafy vegetables are in beta-carotene. The fact is that the dominant flourishing coloring of chlorophyll hides beta-carotene from sight.

Other carotenoids to be upon the look-out for now, with more research forward the horizon, are cryptoxanthin and zeaxanthin.

The health benefits of carotenoids are wide-reaching, and are not limited to any dead body organ or area, although cancers of the following shadows have improved with supplementation: bladder, larynx, esophagus, stomach, colon / rectum and prostate. Wherever free-radical damage come to passs in our cells, carotenoids can certainly help, if ingested in large enough amounts in vegetables, fruits, and supplements

Carotenoids put forward protection against macular degeneration

Millions of words have been written about the carotenes' part in helping our bodies ward distant from or cope with cardiovascular disorders and certain cancers, among other degenerative (aging-related) diseases. However, little has been written about the ability of carotenoids -- including beta-carotene, lutein, and zeaxanthin -- to obviate age-related macular degeneration, the leading cause of blindness in the middle-aged and somewhat old This disease is characterized by dint of a gradual and painless deterioration of the central part of the retina that distinguishes fine visual detail.

Surprisingly, an article by way of Johanna M. Seddon, M.D., et al. which appeared in the November 9 1994 issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association, a "mainstream-medical" publication, spotlighted the benefits of beta-carotene in lowering the risk of macular degeneration.

Evaluating 357 cases of advanced macular degeneration in 55- to 80-year-old patients, compared with 520 repress subjects, Seddon found that the highest intake of beta-carotene contributed to a 43-percent lower risk of developing macular degeneration in comparison with the lowest one-fifth. "A regular intake of spinach and collard undecayeds was especially protective," she reported.

Beta-carotene teams up with lutein and zeaxanthin -- golden and red coloring carotenoids in virid leafy vegetables -- to preclude or slow the onset of age-related macular degeneration. Researchers theorize that these carotenoids -- especially lutein -- aggregate in the retina and macula, filtering not at home harmful light rays, while also quenching emancipated radicals caused by light and oxidation.

Supplementation with docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and ascorbic acid (vitamin C) is also critical.

Ketchup is a carotenoid source, too

The greatest in quantity up and coming superstar among carotenoids is lycopene No other carotenoid concentrates in such a manner highly in your blood plasma as lycopene This is fortunate, because, in many ways, especially as an antioxidant, it is proving to be a fierce fighter against degenerative diseases.

The richest bread sources of lycopene are watermelon, strawberries, and particularly tomatoes. A 1995 epidemiological cogitation by Edward Giovannucci, M.D., and colleagues, at the Harvard University exercise of Public Health, which appeared in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, revealed a direct relationship between eating operationed tomato products, such as all-natural ketchup and a reduc risk of cancer.

The Giovannucci form into groups found that eating tomatoes, tomato sauce, and pizza -- heavy in succession tomato paste topping -- more than twice each week was associated with a 21 to 43 percent reduc risk of developing prostate cancer, depending in succession what foods were eaten.

Giovannucci's finding was before long validated by similar studies demeanored by Steven K. Clinton, MD PhD of the Dana Farber Cancer Institute, Carlo LaVechia, MD of the Maria Negri Institute for Pharmacological Research (in Milan, Italy), and John Weisburger, PhD of the American Health Foundation.

Weisburger writes that previous studies have already shown that lycopene the carotenoid that gives tomatoes their distinctive r color, functions as a powerful antioxidant.