Ways to Eat Grapefruit for Lycopene
Anthropologists inform us that the human species has been about four million years. Scientists have identified more than a dozen distinct species that belonged to the hominoid family. Of course, they all had one thing in common. Give up? They all had to eat to survive.
Why did they eat certain foods? As a general rule, hominids were omnivores, meaning that they ate both plants and meats. But long before we had scientists to analyze foods and create those nutritional labels for everything, most species knew what to eat based on appearance, smell, and taste.
In fact, the olfactory sense was and still is the most reliable way to gauge how something will taste. For instance, if a gallon of milk has turned and it smells sour, that is exactly how it will taste. More often than not, the scent of food will also tell us how healthy it is. No, we're not kidding? Think about it for a moment. Foods that are unhealthy do not have naturally prepossessing odors. Fast foods, fried foods, sugary snacks, and greasy treats all smell insalubrious.
Now, let us take a moment to discuss naturally healthy foods like fruits and vegetables? Have you ever been to a farmer's market and taken a whiff of a fresh tomato, pear, peach, or grapefruit? How did it smell? We can answer that one for you–it smelled like it was fresh and healthy, because that's exactly what it was. In the next few paragraphs we will discuss the health benefits and ways to eat grapefruit.
The grapefruit belongs to the citrus family of fruits, which means that it is high in vitamin C, antioxidants, and polynutrients. But today we want to focus on lycopene. What is it? As we mentioned earlier, scientists have only recently begun to test the foods we eat. If, for example, the entire course of human history were condensed into a single day, then nutritional information would only have been made available in the last few seconds of the last hour of that day. In short, we have much to learn about the foods we eat.
What do we know about lycopene? To begin with, we know that it is a carotenoid, which means that it is found in the skin and flesh of certain fruits and vegetables. When it comes to ways to eat grapefruit, only the pink and red varieties contain measurable amounts of lycopene, since it is responsible for their coloring or pigment.
Studies have confirmed that lycopene possesses antioxidant properties, which means that it protects the body from harmful free radicals that can damage cells. Many medical professionals also contend that lycopene may reduce the risk of certain types of cancer, particularly prostate cancer. Further research is required, but the early evidence is encouraging.
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