#274 Like-o-pene

There’s something unusual on my desk and my wife has just given me a dirty look. Hey, I’m just doing research. Because at dinner last night I just learned about this stuff and now I want to share it with you. Spread it around as it were. Top off your day with a new ingredient for successful living. Add a little spice to your life.
I’m talking about lycopene. And I learned about from one of the greatest mass marketing and advertising tools I’ve ever encountered, a bottle of ketchup. Heinz 57 ketchup no less, the ketchup of liberals. And like a good liberal it’s trying to educate us into how to live our lives better. I know, I know, sometimes it’s annoying hearing liberals go on and on about saving the planet and cleaning up our lives and helping the poor and stuff, but this is important. This is lycopene man, and ketchup is a valuable daily source of it. And finally, a mass American food, instead of claiming what it doesn’t have, like trans fat, is boasting what it does. Lycopene. I like it. Now I confess, until last evening I had no idea lycopene even existed, much less that coating my charred steer flesh patty and fat-saturated fried potato slices with it would be healthy. But apparently so. Lycopene it turns out, is an antioxidant.
If I may digress for a moment. Product advertising is nothing new. I spent much of my childhood soaking up cereal box advertisements and have a closet full of X-ray glasses to prove it. But it is refreshing to see the concept broadened to include condiments. So the ketchup bottle proclaims: “Natural source of the antioxidant lycopene!” Then “Lycopene is another great reason to love Heinz ketchup. Lycopene is a powerful antioxidant and is found naturally in Heinz ketchup, 1.5 mg per serving, and other processed tomato products. Visit www.lycopene.org for more information on the latest research.” Which I did and found out that “Epidemiological studies have shown that high intake of lycopene-containing vegetables is inversely associated with the incidence of certain types of cancer. For example, habitual intake of tomato products has been inversely associated with the risk of cancer of the digestive tract among Italians.” Oh yeah, give me a ketchup pizza. The bottle goes on to list the ingredients. I notice that a serving size is 1 tablespoon and that in that 1 tablespoon is also 190 mg of salt and 4 grams of high fructose corn syrup. I’m not entirely sure how many actual oxidants are in all that salt and sugar. But I’m relatively certain that net-net ketchup is a good idea. Especially Heinz 57. For one reason because they spell it ketchup with a “k” like a sailing boat in a stiff wind, not cat-soup with a “c”, like something a pussy would slurp up. Although in their serving directions, I’m not sure it’s appropriate to say, use liberally.
America, ya gotta love it.