Are Raw Tomatoes super healers for cancer?
Seeing Red
Doctors and scientists now encourage men to eat a lot of tomato products--even ketchup. This is because cooked tomatoes are rich in lycopene, which seems to lower the risk of prostate cancer. In preliminary experiments, a diet rich in tomato-based dishes--pastas of various kinds cooked with tomato sauce--has even slowed the progress of existing prostate cancer. But wait a minute .Should Women like Lycopene, Too?What health benefits do tomatoes have for you?
Doctors and scientists now encourage men to eat a lot of tomato products--even ketchup. This is because cooked tomatoes are rich in lycopene, which seems to lower the risk of prostate cancer. An important relative of beta carotene, lycopene is a plant pigment that makes tomatoes red (and watermelon red and pink grapefruit pink). In some preliminary experiments, a diet rich in tomato-based dishes--pastas of various kinds cooked with tomato sauce--has even slowed the progress of existing prostate cancer, as we said in April. But wait a minute.
Can lycopene help prevent cancer in women, too?
Breast cancer: Frustratingly, it has been hard to link breast cancer risk to anything that women eat, or don't eat, including lycopene. Not many researchers have even looked at the relationship between tomato and/or lycopene intake and breast cancer. A few studies have found that in postmenopausal women, high blood levels of lycopene are associated with a lower risk of breast cancer. And lab studies with mice and rats have shown that lycopene may interrupt the growth of mammary cancer cells. But at this point nobody can say that eating tomatoes will reduce your risk.
Should Women like Lycopene, Too?
What health benefits do tomatoes have for you?
Cervical cancer: Many studies have found that eating lots of fruits and vegetables lowers the risk of cervical cancer, but it's not known whether it's the lycopene or something else. More than one study has found that women who consume the most lycopene are less likely to have precancerous cervical cells.
Ovarian and uterine cancer: Almost nothing is known about the connection, if any, between nutrition and these two cancers. But one Canadian study did find that women with the highest intake of lycopene had a reduced risk of cancer of the uterus.
Despite the unknowns, women should treat themselves to lycopene-rich foods--particularly tomato sauces and other processed tomato products. Raw tomatoes are good, too, but lycopene is more available to the body when the tomatoes are cooked. As the old proverb insisted, what's sauce for the gander is also sauce for the goose.
Add this page to your favorite Social Bookmarking websites
| < Prev | Next > |
|---|
