Reduce Cancer Risk: Eat Tomatoes

Eating tomatoes and tomato products cuts the risk of many kinds of cancers including prostate cancer, according to a comprehensive scientific review of previously published studies. Harvard University Medical School scientists published the conclusions last year in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. The study was paid for by the Campbell Soup Company, one of the biggest producers of tomato products in the world.

Evidence has been mounting for some time that a diet high in fruits and vegetables contributes to a decrease in cancer risk. The study supports the idea that lycopene is strongly protective against several types of cancers. "These findings extend this evidence to tomato and tomato products and support recommendations to include tomatoes and tomato products as part of a diet high in fruits and vegetables," they said.

The research team reviewed scientific papers that studied the link between eating tomato products, blood levels of lycopene and cancer risk. Fifty-seven of the papers showed that consumption of tomato products and the risk of various cancers, according to the researchers. In other words, the more tomato products people in the studies ate, the lower their risk of cancer turned out to be.

Lycopene is a type of plant chemical that gives tomatoes and other vegetables their characteristic color. Exactly how it exerts its protective effect isn't clear but one possibility is that it acts as an antioxidant, neutralizing free radicals. The research team speculated.

In prostate cancer, for example, lycopene-rich foods showed strong associations with lowered cancer risk. They got the same result when they looked at relationships between eating tomato products and prostate, lung, colon and rectal cancers, according to the research team. They said that men, who ate large quantities of foods containing lycopene showed a 34-percent decrease in clinically significant cases of prostate cancer. For more on the disease, go to the Web site of the American Cancer Society.