"Consuming whole foods like tomatoes and processed tomatoes from sauces,
tomato paste, canned whole tomato products, ketchup and juice, provides
the best source of lycopene," said Xiang-Dong Wang, Professor at Tufts
University in the US.
Interestingly, we observed that tomato powder is more effective than the
same dose of purified lycopene supplementation to prevent liver cancer
development, said Wang.This could be due to the potential beneficial
effects of other nutrients in a whole tomato, such as vitamin E, vitamin
C, folate, minerals, phenolic compounds and dietary fibres.
In addition, feeding mice tomato powder increased the richness and
diversity of beneficial microbiota and prevented the over-growth of some
bacteria related to inflammation, said the study, published in the
journal Cancer Prevention Research.
For the study, infant mice were infected with a liver carcinogen and
then fed an unhealthy high-fat diet similar to a Western diet, with or
without tomato powder containing lycopene.Other foods including guava,
watermelon, grapefruit, papaya, and sweet red pepper also contain
lycopene, but in much lower concentrations compared to tomatoes.
Eating tomatoes and tomato products such as tomato sauce rich in
lycopene is also associated with a lower risk of cardiovascular disease,
osteoporosis, diabetes, and certain cancers, including prostate, lung,
breast and colon cancer, the study showed.
