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From:	Dr. Doug Graham (DrGraham.vegsource.com)
Subject:	Re: For Dr. Graham, lycopene
Date:	March 17, 2012 at 12:56 pm PST

In Reply to: For Dr. Graham, lycopene posted by Augusto on March 17, 2012 at 7:43 am:

To be honest, Augusto, this was material I learned in med school, back in a nutrition class more than 30 years ago, from one of the teachers. Since then, students of mine have verified it several times in various classes I've taught where we taught them how to do research. So, at this moment, I don't have a reference for you, but you can easily find the info, I am certain. Do let me know what you find.
Since we know that lycopene is damaged by heat, it is a veritable no-brainer that there is more lycopene in a raw tomato than in a cooked one.
What does go up is the bio-availability, but unfortunately, the numbers don't support the idea that more total lycopene is absorbed from cooked than raw tomato. A higher percentage, yes, but an actual greater total, no. I don't have the exact numbers, but it something like 50% of the lycopene absorbed from a raw tomato and 60% from a cooked tomato, but almost half of the lycopene is damaged when cooked. Therefore, 60% of half as much isn't as much as 50% of the original total. Understand?

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