FDA: Little Evidence Tomatoes Help Stop Cancer
Damn. It seems that all the "cancer-preventing" ketchup I've doused my food with during the past year may have been for naught.
Researchers at the FDA's Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition in College Park, Md., wrote in an article published online at the Journal of the National Cancer Institute that there is no credible evidence that tomatoes and lycopene (the pigment that gives tomatoes that bright red color) cuts the risk of lung, colorectal, breast, cervical or uterine cancers. They did say there is "very limited evidence" that tomatoes can reduce the risk of prostate, ovarian, gastric and pancreatic cancer.
The MedPage Today site notes that the FDA's explanation of its position on tomatoes comes 18 months "after the agency refused a request from food companies to allow them to make unfettered claims that both fresh and cooked tomatoes have anti-malignancy properties, and that lycopene, the anti-oxidant in the fruit, is responsible."
ABC News reports that Dr. David Katz, director of the Prevention Research Center at Yale University School of Medicine, said the report only reaffirms what scientists have already learned.
"There is no silver bullet in food. Dietary pattern influences health very powerfully. But that power does not tend to reside in a single food, and certainly not in a single nutrient. Lycopene joins the ranks of vitamin C, beta carotene, and vitamin E in this regard."
But there is that one ray of hope. In an editorial accompanying the report, Dr. Edward Giovannucci of the Harvard School of Public Health writes, "Although it may be premature to espouse increased consumption of tomato sauce or lycopene for prostate cancer prevention, this area of research remains promising."
OK, so maybe I'll still put ketchup on everything.
4:10 PM ET | 07-12-2007 | permalink
