The benefits of tomatoes for the prostate
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You may have heard news and read a couple of headlines over the years. All at the same pace and address the same topic. Talking about the relationship of tomatoes to the prostate, "Tomatoes are a miracle cure for prostate cancer." "Tomatoes succeed in preventing prostate cancer." "Tomatoes fight prostate cancer." ..etc
These headlines have certainly made many men keen on eating tomato products. The researchers advised them to eat tomato sauce to protect the prostate, and the Food and Drug Administration in the United States allowed specific health claims for tomato products. Heinz boasted that, "Your risk of prostate cancer may be reduced by eating just one-half to one cup of their produce, as one ticket of their pasta sauce.
?Are the Prostate Benefits of Tomatoes Just a Myth
Now, all of a sudden, the exact opposite is being raised and it's been rumored that tomatoes are no longer protective against prostate cancer, what happened? Double reporting is what happens. The study that made headlines about tomatoes' failure to prevent prostate cancer didn't actually show anything of the sort. What the study showed was that blood levels of lycopene, the red pigment found in tomatoes, were not associated with prostate cancer risk. But the original advice to increase dietary intake of tomatoes was never based on lycopene levels, but rather on epidemiological evidence that showed men who ate more tomato products were less likely to develop prostate cancer. The rationale they came up with after the study was that the lycopene in tomatoes was responsible for that effect. But this is not true. Lycopene is an excellent antioxidant and eliminates free radicals that cause cancer.
The role of tomato products in the prevention of prostate
But in 2003, Ohio State University researchers had already compared the cancer-protective properties of tomato products with those of lycopene. In mice exposed to prostate cancer, they found that those fed a diet containing tomato powder took significantly longer to develop prostate disease and were 26% less likely to die from prostate cancer compared to those on a diet that did not contain tomatoes or foods that included Lycopene. When mice were fed a diet of lycopene alone, mortality rates from prostate cancer were similar to those fed a diet without lycopene. Clearly, there are more health benefits to tomatoes than just lycopene. Dozens of compounds found in tomatoes have physiological activity, but lycopene has become a hot topic of controversy and has been credited with being relatively easy to quantify and being an antioxidant
The Latest Study Links Tomatoes to the Prostate
In the current study, researchers at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center took blood samples from more than 28,000 men and after eight years compared the levels of lycopene in the blood of those who developed prostate cancer with those who did not. they get hurt. As in the previous rat study. They did not find any dorlycopene. In contrast to the rat study, they did not check the consumption of tomatoes!
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So this current study certainly does not negate all the other studies that have shown the benefits of eating tomatoes for prostate treatment, but it does confirm the fact that the benefits of tomatoes for the prostate cannot be attributed to a single nutrient (lycopene). The study also raised the alarm about beta-carotene, finding that higher levels of beta-carotene in the blood are linked to more aggressive forms of prostate cancer. What do we conclude from all this? This highly publicized study certainly does not justify the headlines claiming that tomatoes failed to prevent prostate cancer. However, it has been suggested that we should be wary of being drawn into the propaganda of supplement companies crediting lycopene alone with fighting prostate cancer to be able to profit from it.