Tomato products cut prostate cancer risk, research finds

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Tomato products cut prostate cancer risk, research finds

http://www.showmenews.com/2002/Mar/20020306News025.asp

 

WASHINGTON (AP) - Men who consume tomato products two or more times a week

can significantly reduce their chances of contracting prostate cancer, a

study found.

 

Eating cooked tomatoes was particularly beneficial, according to the study,

which showed that regularly eating tomato sauce, ketchup and other

tomato-based foods lowered the prostate cancer risk by as much as 36

percent.

 

Edward Giovannucci of Brigham and Women's Hospital and the Harvard School of

Public Health, the first author of the study, said it supported research

involving foods such as tomatoes that were high in lycopene, a powerful

antioxidant.

 

" These most recent findings add support to the notion that a diet rich in

tomatoes and lycopene-containing foods, as well as other fruits and

vegetables, may reduce the risk of prostate cancer, " Giovannucci said.

 

A report on the study appears today in the Journal of the National Cancer

Institute.

 

Researchers analyzed the food choices and prostate cancer histories of more

than 47,000 men and found that those who ate at least two meals a week

containing tomato products lowered their risk of prostate cancer by 24

percent to 36 percent.

 

Giovannucci said that lycopene is thought to protect against cancer by

absorbing oxygen free-radicals, which are chemicals created during

metabolism that can damage the genetic structure of cells.

 

The finding is based on data from the Health Professional Follow-Up Study, a

project that followed the health history and dietary habits of 47,000 men,

aged 40 to 75, from 1986 to 1998. During that period, 2,481 of the men

developed prostate cancer.

 

Dietary questionnaires in the study included such food items as tomatoes,

tomato sauce, tomato juice, pizza, watermelon and pink grapefruit along with

salsa, ketchup and other tomato-based condiments.

 

When the data was adjusted for the effects of other lifestyle factors, the

researchers found that tomatoes, especially if they had been cooked, were

beneficial against prostate cancer.

 

" Spaghetti sauce was the most popular " and also seemed to give the most

protection, said Giovannucci. He said that cooking raw tomatoes, as is done

to make spaghetti sauce, might break down cell walls of the fruit and allow

the body to absorb more lycopene.

 

Jo Ann Carson, a clinical nutritionist at the University of Texas, Southwest

Medical Center in Dallas, said the study " is an example that what we eat can

affect our risk of cancer. "

 

The study also supports the idea that foods rich in antioxidants, rather

than vitamin pills, provide the most cancer protection, she said.

 

" Eating the whole foods seems to give a beneficial combination that would be

lacking in supplements, " Carson said.

 

Copyright 2002 Associated Press. All rights reserved.