This powerful food ingredient can cut your risk of stroke by over half!

The amazingly simple way to slash your stroke risk

We’ve just uncovered a way to slash your risk of getting a stroke by 55 percent.

And you can do it without dangerous drugs.

This might even be the secret to getting off those blood pressure meds — or not having to start on them in the first place.

Because what researchers have discovered about this common food component and its unique powers is nothing short of miraculous. Especially what it can do for your heart and blood vessels.

And best of all, it’s probably in your refrigerator right now — hiding in one of your favorite condiments!

Remember all those jokes anti-Reagan liberals made back in the ’80s about ketchup being called a vegetable?

Well, it looks like the joke is on them.

Because ketchup, it turns out, contains an amazing compound. One so potent you could even call it a “super vegetable!”

It’s called lycopene.

You’ve probably heard of lycopene for prostate health.

But that’s just the beginning. Researchers from the University of Cambridge recently found that the lycopene in tomatoes is so potent that it can significantly improve functioning of the vascular system in people who already have heart disease.

These were people on regular doses of drugs, including statins, but whose blood vessels still weren’t working normally.

And that’s very dangerous. Because blood vessel constriction is a major factor in strokes…and heart attacks.

The English researchers discovered that just 7 mg of lycopene could widen the blood vessels of those in the study with heart disease. And not by an insignificant amount either, but by a whopping 53 percent!

And here’s the amazing part. It’s what separates the real foods and compounds Mother Nature gave us from risky drugs created in a laboratory.

The lycopene didn’t widen the blood vessels of the healthy people in the study. So it seems to work only when the body needs it!

And that brings me back to ketchup.

The lycopene in tomatoes becomes even more potent, and easier for your body to use, when it’s pureed, like tomatoes are to make ketchup! In fact, just a tablespoon of this super condiment will give you almost 3 mg of lycopene. That’s close to half the dose the researchers used in their study.

Want more lycopene? Use some tomato sauce in your cooking or have a glass of tomato juice. There’s 19 mg of lycopene in a half cup of tomato sauce and 23 mg in a cup of tomato juice!

And if you want to make that lycopene even more powerful, use those tomatoes in a recipe with olive oil to supercharge it!

Just incorporating some tomato products into your daily diet might be all it takes not to have your doctor constantly nag you about taking Lipitor or other dangerous meds.

As for high blood pressure medications — well, you can throw a tomato at them as well.

In Israel, researchers found that those who took a daily tomato extract dose were able to drop their top blood pressure number — the systolic one — by 10 points, and lower the bottom diastolic number by 4 points.

And that’s a whole lot better than being on a dangerous blood-pressure medication.

The kinds of drugs — called vasodilators — that your doctor will give you for high blood pressure and angina, come with a whole host of side effects.

“The problem with vasodilator drugs is that they increase heart rate and oxygen demand,” said cardiologist Dr. Antonio Diaz. So what may work in the “short term,” said Dr. Diaz, ends up causing patients to have “retention of sodium and water.”

And that’s aside from all the other side effects they can cause.

But for the icing on the lycopene cake, another published study has shown that men who had the highest levels of lycopene in their blood had a 55 percent lower risk of getting a stroke compared to those who had low levels. And these were men in their mid to late 60s, not twenty-somethings!

So the next time ketchup is on your shopping list, here’s a good reason to try an organic brand. Organic ketchup has been found to have 57 percent more lycopene than non-organic varieties.

And that’s a heart-saving “vegetable” everyone can agree on.

Sources:
“Getting off cardiovascular meds — tomato’s powerhouse antioxidant lycopene widens blood vessels by more than 50 percent” Karen Foster, June 11, 2014, Prevent Disease, preventdisease.com

“Tomato extract ‘improves blood vessel function’ in CVD patients” June 10, 2014, Medical News Today, medicalnewstoday.com