According to a report by the UK's Daily Telegraph, a study published in the British Journal of Nutrition shows that eating more tomatoes helps prevent prostate cancer. Lycopene from cooked tomatoes can slow the growth of prostate cancer cells and even kill them.
Cancer cells grow and spread by "hijacking" the blood supply needed by healthy human cells, while lycopene can interfere with the cancer cells' "blood-sucking" function. Researchers at the University of Portsmouth in the UK now hope to test whether this anti-cancer process can be replicated in the human body.
The study found that all red fruits and vegetables contain lycopene, but tomatoes have the highest content. Cooked tomatoes with a little cooking oil make the lycopene more easily absorbed, and its biological activity is also the highest. All cancer cell survival mechanisms involve absorbing the body's blood supply, but the anti-cancer function of lycopene is particularly significant in prostate cancer cases because lycopene tends to accumulate in prostate cells.
Results from previous studies by the researchers showed that eating 400 grams of cooked tomatoes daily for two consecutive weeks significantly increased the level of lycopene in the blood. In addition, smokers need to consume more tomatoes to achieve the same effect as non-smokers.