Men interested in lowering their odds of prostate and other cancers should consider eating at least five servings of tomato-based products a week, according to research presented at the fourth annual World Congress on the Processing Tomato in Sacramento.
A number of studies have already cited lycopene, a naturally occurring substance in tomatoes, as one of the substances that may be associated with the reduced risk of prostate and other cancers.
In a recent review of 72 studies published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute, Dr. Edward Giovannucci of Harvard Medical School concluded that intake of tomatoes, and tomato-based products, has been consistently related to elevated blood lycopene levels and a lower risk of a variety of cancers.
Research has shown that the cooking and processing of tomato products appear to make lycopene even more readily available to the body, indicating that there may be an added health benefit to eating processed tomato products like tomato soup and tomato sauce.
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