You may have heard that tomatoes and processed tomato products, like tomato sauce and canned tomatoes, protect against prostate and other types of cancer. The cancer-preventing properties of tomato products have been attributed to lycopene.
Lycopene, which belongs to the same chemical family as beta-carotene, is an antioxidant that gives the deep red color to tomatoes and several fruits. As a result, Internet Web sites have proliferated to advertise lycopene supplements for the prevention of prostate cancer.
And lycopene is added to some multivitamin pills as an inducement to choose them rather than a competitor's brand of vitamin pills that do not contain lycopene.
Indeed, several studies have reported that the intake of tomato products or lycopene lowers the risk of some types of cancer. An article in the July issue of the Journal of the National Cancer Institute covers a thorough review by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the evidence for the cancer-protective effect of tomatoes and lycopene.
The review was undertaken to address two petitions requesting permission to make qualified health claims stating that intake of tomatoes or lycopene reduces the risk for some forms of cancer.
"The FDA review," says that agency's report, "found no credible evidence to support an association between lycopene intake and a reduced risk" of prostate, lung, colorectal, gastric, breast, ovarian, endometrial, or pancreatic cancer. The FDA also concluded that "there was no credible evidence supporting an association between tomato or tomato-based food consumption" and the risk of lung, colorectal, breast, cervical, or endometrial cancer.
As a result of this review, advertisers can continue to point out that their products contain lycopene, but the FDA has ruled that they are not allowed to make specific claims that these products reduce the risk of any form of cancer. I predict that sales of lycopene-containing supplements will continue to flourish because most consumers will ignore the findings of this scientific review
However, the FDA's report did go on to say, "FDA concluded that there was very limited credible evidence for qualified health claims for tomatoes and/or tomato sauce and a reduced risk for prostate, gastric, ovarian, and pancreatic cancers provided that the qualified health claims were appropriately worded so as to not mislead."
For example, the approved, qualified, health claim for prostate cancer was as follows: "Very limited and preliminary scientific research suggests that eating one-half to one cup of tomatoes and/or tomato sauce a week may reduce the risk of prostate cancer. FDA concludes that there is little scientific evidence supporting this claim."
I was never tempted to take lycopene supplements, nor does the weak FDA "endorsement" of possible cancer prevention by tomatoes increase my enthusiasm for eating them.
Rather, I will continue to eat tomatoes because they are so tasty. I suggest that you choose tomatoes and tomato products if you like their taste, not with the hope they will prevent cancer.
