Lycopene Fact Sheet

What We Know About Lycopene and Heart Disease
A number of studies have found that people who eat diets rich in tomatoes and tomato products tend to have fewer heart attacks and other heart problems. Scientists have also studied whether some of this benefit may be due to lycopene, which is a nutrient found mostly in tomatoes.
So far, we have learned that people with heart disease have less lycopene in their bodies than heart-healthy people do. Some studies have reported beneficial effects on cholesterol in the blood when people take lycopene supplements. But other studies have not found any benefits.
At present there are no long-term studies of whether people who take lycopene will actually lower their risk of having a heart attack. So we do not know whether there is any benefit from taking lycopene supplements. Carefully controlled and long-term clinical studies will be needed to answer this question.