Tomatoes keep the wrinkles away

Topical sun screens don’t always provide the protection that tender skin needs against sunburn and skin aging.  So it’s good news that British researchers have now shown that a simple food ingredient may give a considerable protective boost against sun damage. 

For natural protection from within, The Nutri Centre, the UK’s leading resource for dietary supplements and complementary medicines, recommends taking Lycopene 10mg from Vitamin Research Products. This natural tomato extract delivers free radical fighting lycopene, one of our body’s most important quenchers of singlet oxygen free radicals with an antioxidant
punch two or three times more powerful than beta carotene.  

In a new study by researchers from the Universities of Newcastle and Manchester subjects who consumed five tablespoons of lycopene rich tomato paste daily for 12 weeks were found to have 33 per cent more protection against sunburn, compared to the control group. 

Skin samples taken from the subjects indicated that the tomato paste-supplemented individuals had higher skin levels of pro-collagen, a molecule which gives the skin its structure and loss of which leads to skin ageing and lack of elasticity.

Co-researcher Professor Lesley Rhodes said at the British Society for Investigative Dermatology annual meeting:  "The tomato diet boosted the level of pro-collagen in the skin significantly. These increasing levels suggest potential reversal of the skin ageing process. This is in addition to the significant reduction in sunburn.“

If you want to minimise the skin-damaging effects of sunshine at home or on your summer holiday, but you can’t stomach a plate of tomatoes or a big daily dollop of paste, Lycopene as a supplement comes in convenient soft gel form, standardised for guaranteed potency and extracted from a special, high-lycopene tomato species. 

Senior Nutri Centre nutritionist Alex Shalet commented: "People should not think that tomatoes as a food or supplement can replace sun creams, but they are certainly a good addition. If you can improve your skin protection through your diet then over time this may have a significant effect in reducing skin ageing and offer additional protection from the misery of sunburn.”

To avoid looking like a tomato try Lycopene 10mg  by Vitamin Research Products, available from The Nutri Centre on 0207 436 5122 or on-line at www.nutricentre.com . 

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