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PHYTONUTRIENTS #2: THE RED GROUP- The Red Group is first because it was the one that stimulated the concept of color groups with different phytochemical families when I gave a talk on the mechanisms of action of Lycopene, the best known phytonutrient in Red colored fruits and vegetables at the New York Academy of Sciences in 1995. Lycopene is concentrated in the prostate and studies showed that men who ate five servings per week of tomato products had a lower risk of prostate cancer and higher levels of Lycopene in their blood. After my talk, a professor noted the other substances in the tomato including phytoene, phytofluene, and beta-carotene and called this the Red Family. So the color of a fruit like tomato, watermelon, red pepper, and pink grapefruit indicated the presence of Lycopene. This observation gave me the idea for my book “What Color is Your Diet?” published in 2001 and still in print in several languages. In Spanish “Los Siete Colores de Salud”. In all, there are seven color groups and I will discuss each of these over the next six posts. Lycopene has the highest antioxidant activity of the group known as carotenoids that also includes Beta-Carotene (orange group) and Lutein (yellow-green group) since there is no oxygen atom in the chemical structure of Lycopene. Stay tuned for the Orange Group next which can turn your skin to an orange color if you eat a lot of veggies from this group!! #drdavidheber #lycopene #tomato #antioxidants to learn more go to www.drdavidheber.com and www.herbalifenutritioninstitute.com and read PERSONALIZED NUTRITION AND TRANSFORMATION available as an e-book on Amazon.com for $5.49

A post shared by Dr. David Heber (@drdavidheber) on Mar 22, 2018 at 6:06am PDT