At the University of Toronto, a study found that drinking two glasses of tomato juice daily can strengthen bones and aid in preventing the debilitating bone disease, osteoporosis.
The Canadian study used 60 post-menopausal women aged 50 to 60 as subjects. Researchers asked them to cut all tomatoes from their diet for a month, which led to increased levels of N-telopeptide, a chemical emitted into the bloodstream when bone is weakening. Then, the women in the study went on one of four courses for four months: daily doses of regular tomato juice, lycopene enriched tomato juice, lycopene capsules, or dummy capsules.
The Daily Mail reported that researchers yielded positive results for the tomato juice:
This [the tomato juice] led to a significant drop in levels of N-telopeptide in women drinking either type of juice or taking the capsules. But there was no benefit in women taking the dummy capsules.
Standard supermarket juice was just as good as the lycopene-enriched one, said researchers.
Two glasses a day of tomato juice containing 15mg of lycopene could be enough to strengthen brittle bones, the journal Osteoporosis International reported.
See the whole report at the Daily Mail.
