Eating tomatoes daily can
reduce the risk of skin cancer by half in men
If you love eating tomatoes, then here’s another
reason to have one more as a study has recently found that people, especially
males, who consume tomatoes daily can slash the development of skin cancer tumours
by half. In a mouse study, researchers explained how nutritional interventions
can alter the risk for skin cancers. The findings suggested that the male mice
fed a diet of 10 percent tomato powder daily for 35 weeks, then exposed to
ultraviolet light, experienced, on average, a 50 percent decrease in skin
cancer tumours compared to mice that ate no dehydrated tomato. “The theory
behind the relationship between tomatoes and cancer is that dietary
carotenoids, the pigmenting compounds that give tomatoes their colour, may
protect skin against Ultraviolet (UV) light damage,” said co-author of the
study Jessica Cooperstone from Ohio State University in Columbus, US.
Cooperstone further noted that “previous human
clinical trials suggest that eating tomato paste over time can dampen sunburns,
perhaps thanks to carotenoids from the plants that are deposited in the skin of
humans after eating, and may be able to protect against UV light damage”.
Lycopene, the primary carotenoid in tomatoes, has been shown to be the most
effective antioxidant of these pigments. However, when comparing lycopene
administered from a whole food (tomato) or a synthesized supplement, tomatoes
appear more effective in preventing redness after UV exposure, suggesting other
compounds in tomatoes may also be at play, the researchers stated. The team
found that only male mice fed dehydrated red tomatoes had reductions in tumour
growth. Those fed diets with tangerine tomatoes, which have been shown to be
higher in bioavailable lycopene in previous research, had fewer tumours than
the control group.
Cooperstone is currently researching tomato compounds
other than lycopene that may impart health benefits. “Alternative methods for
systemic protection, possibly through nutritional interventions to modulate
risk for skin-related diseases, could provide a significant benefit,”
Cooperstone said. “Foods are not drugs, but they can possibly, over the
lifetime of consumption, alter the development of certain diseases,” she said.
The study appears online in the journal of Scientific Reports.
18.07.2017
Dream big and dare to fail
Norman Vaughan
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