Supports Bone Health

Bone health is another area of growing interest in tomato research. Interestingly, the connection of tomato intake to bone health involves the rich supply of antioxidant in tomatoes. We don t always think about antioxidant protection as being important for bone health, but it is; and tomato lycopene (and other tomato antioxidants) may have a special role to play in this area. In a recent study, tomato and other dietary sources of lycopene were removed from the diets of postmenopausal women for a period of 4 weeks to see what effect lycopene restriction would have on bone health. At the end of 4 weeks, women in the study started to show increased signs of oxidative stress in their bones and unwanted changes in their bone tissue. We expect to see follow up studies in this area that will hopefully determine exactly what levels of tomato intake are most helpful in protecting bone tissue.