Health Highlights: Cancer-fighting power of tomatoes
Key takeaways:
- Tomatoes contain phytochemicals, like lycopene, which decrease your risk of developing cancer
- Cooking tomatoes and drizzling olive oil on them can help you absorb them properly
- Lower your intake of red meat and alcohol, focus on an overall healthy diet
You've heard the term “an apple a day keeps the doctor away.”
Well how about “tomatoes each week, keeps your health at peak?”
Not only are these bright red, juicy fruits filled with vitamins and minerals, but they can also lessen the risk of cancer, says Katrina Sommer, an advanced clinical dietitian with OSF HealthCare.
Tomatoes have what Katrina calls “bonus nutrients” in them called Phytochemicals. They're found in plant foods and help us fight inflammation and act as an antioxidant.
One of the Phytochemicals found in tomatoes is Lycopene.
“There’s a lot of different groups of these phytochemicals. One of them is called carotenoids. Carotenoids a lot of times will give the plant food its color," Sommer says. "Lycopene is a type of carotenoid and gives the tomato that bright red or orange color. Lycopene is also found in watermelon, grapefruit and is the red or pink color you see.”
Sommer recommends cooking the tomatoes and drizzling olive oil on them to help them be absorbed in your system.
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) shared an Adventist Health study showing that having a high intake of tomatoes lessesns the risk of prostate cancer.
If you don't like tomatoes by themselves, tomato sauce or tomato soup are good options.