Ketchup Crazy Children

Do you have ketchup crazy children in your household? Whether you prefer to spell it ketchup, catsup or catchup, one thing is for certain, children love it right along with many of us adults. My belief of why children tend to love the number one condiment of all times, is greatly due to the bright red color. The color of course, is mainly derived from the condiment's number one ingredient which is tomatoes. But behind that strong color yields a very effective antioxidant known as lycopene.

Lycopene is a bright red pigment found in tomatoes. And due to this strong color it is very useful in the coloring of foods. Lycopene is not produced by the body so the only way to obtain this great source is by consumption. Contrary to popular belief, lycopene is not an essential nutrient for humans. But with that being said, there are many health benefits to including lycopene in your daily diet. Some of these wonderful benefits include protecting diabetes patients against cardiovascular disease and improving their response to immunity. The antioxidant properties of lycopene is also said to help flush out toxins such as cyclosporine,cadmium,and aflatoxin. Cyclosporine is a drug that is used in helping the patient's body to not reject any organ transplants such as liver, kidney or heart. Cadmium is a chemical that is known to be cancer causing. And we for sure do not want that in our bodies. Aflatoxin are mycotoxins which occur naturally and are produced by species such as aspergillus which is a fungus. These toxins could potentially harm our livers and therefore it is great that lycopene helps flush them from our systems.

I have not been able to track down a downside of over consumption of lycopene in children. But I did discover that there can be a downside to over consumption of lycopene amoung middle aged women. Such symptoms of this may be involving having one's skin and liver tainted with the coloring of orangish-yellow. Although this can be weird to our eyes, don't worry, after approximately a diet free of lycopene for about three weeks, skin color will turn back to normal.

There is an additional fact about lycopene that I wish to include that does not directly involve ketchup. Lycopene can be found in many other food sources such as fruits and vegetables. Yes that's right. Not only does fruits and vegetables give our bodies antioxidants such as vitamin C, vitamin E, beta-carotene, it also supplies us with lycopene. And there you have it. Another great reason to eat an apple a day.

So to the families that have children going through bottle after bottle of their beloved ketchup, let them eat it. It could be protecting them in the long run and improving immunity in their bodies.