X-Message-Number: 5678
Date: Sun, 28 Jan 1996 10:12:01 -0800 (PST)
From: Doug Skrecky <>
Subject: tomatoes & strawberries prevent cancer (fwd)

This may be a little off topic, but I presume most cryonicists would be 
interested in delaying their possibly one-way trip to the freezer...

---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Fri, 26 Jan 1996 16:03:25 -0800 (PST)
From: Doug Skrecky <>
To: 
Cc: 
Subject: tomatoes & strawberries prevent cancer

     What would be the optimal anticancer diet? Obviously one including
 lots of fruits and vegetables. The hard part comes in deciding WHICH
 fruits and vegetables. Recent research has helped clarify this. Of 46
 fruits and vegetables only two were found to be related to reduced
 prostate cancer risk: tomatoes and strawberries. Broccoli turned out to
 be a dud, as did cantalope, carrots, kale, oranges, mixed vegetables,
 spinach, yams, etc. Surprisingly pizza turned out to be a health food due
 to its tomato content, with a 15% reduction in risk associated with high
 consumption. High tomato consumption reduced risk 26%, high tomato sauce
 intake 34%, while consuming a single serving (.5 cup/week) of
 strawberries reduced risk by 20%. The benefits of consumption of all
 tomato based products turned to out to be highly leveraged with respect
 to mortality. Most cases of prostate cancer turn out to be fairly benign,
 while some (called stage D) tend to be fatal. Tomato product consumption
 of over 10 servings per week reduced risk of prostate cancer by 35%, but
 reduced risk of stage D cancers by 76%. The active ingrediant in tomatoes
 was believed to be it's red pigment lycopene since intake of tomato juice
 was unrelated to prostate cancer risk. *1 Drinking tomato juice with 1%
 corn oil has been found not to increase plasma lycopene levels, while
 drinking the same juice with corn oil that has been cooked for 1 hour
 greatly increased lycopene levels. *2
     In other research lycopene has been found to be 10 times as potent as
 beta carotene in inhibiting cancer cell growth in the test tube. *3 This
 may explain why tomato consumption is beneficial, while intake of beta
 carotene rich foods is insufficient to be of benefit. Beta carotene
 supplements have been found to reduce plasma lycopene levels, which may
 account for why supplemental beta carotene INCREASES both lung cancer and
 ischemic heart disease risks. *4 *5
     High tomato intake reduced cancers of the oral cavity, pharynx,
 esophagus by 35%, stomach cancer by 57%, colon cancer by 61% and rectum
 cancer by 58%. *6 By comparison high fruit and vegetable juice
 consumption had no effect on colon cancer risks, broccoli was a dud, as
 was brussels sprouts, cabbage, carrots and legumes. Green leafy
 vegetables reduced risk slightly by 11%, high fruit intake by 14%, while
 cauliflower actually increased risk by 39%. Potatoes increased risk by
 24%, but this may been due to other half of a basic meat & potatoes diet. 
 Moderate garlic consumption had no effect, but high intake reduced risk
 by 32%. *7
     Of the dietary carotenoids examined only lycopene has been found to
 reduce cervical cancer risk. No benefit was found for lutein (greens),
 while results for alpha carotene, beta carotene and cryptoxanthin
 (oranges) were ambiguous. *8
     The effect of fruit and vegetable intake on cancer mortality in those
 over 66 years of age found some interesting correlations. Spinach and
 green vegetable consumption offered no benefits. High broccoli & brussels
 sprouts intake reduced mortality by 20%, dried apricots, prunes and
 raisins reduced mortality by 40%, tomatoes by 50% and combined
 strawberries and melon intake by an astonishing 70%. *9
     What can we conclude from all this? It is time to start gobbling down
 lots of tomatoes and strawberries! 

 *1 "Intake of Carotenoids and Retinol in Relation to Risk of Prostate
 Cancer" 1767-76 Vol.87 1995 J Natl Cancer Inst
 *2 "Uptake of Lycopene and its Geometrical Isomers is Greater from
 Heat-Processed than from Unprocessed Tomato Juice in Humans" 2161-2166
 Vol.122 1992 J Nutr
 *3 "Lycopene is a more Potent Inhibitor of Human Cancer Cell
 Proliferation than Either Alpha-Carotene or Beta-Carotene" 257-266 Vol.24
 1995 Nutr Cancer
 *4 "Skin Lycopene is Destroyed Preferentially over B-Carotene During
 Ultraviolet Irradiation in Humans" 1854-1859 Vol.125 1995 J Nutr
 *5 "The Effect of Vitamin E abd Beta Carotene on the Incidence of Lung
 Cancer and other cancers in Male Smokers" 1029-1035 Vol.330 1994 N Engl J
 Med
 *6 "Tomatoes and Risk of Digestive-Tract Cancers" 181-184 Vol.59 1994 Int
 J Cancer
 *7 "Vegetables, Fruit and Colon Cancer in the Iowa Women's Health Study" 
 1-15 Vol.139 1994 Am J Epidemiol
 *8 "Dietary and Serum Carotenoids and Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia" 
 34-38 Vol.48 1991 Int J Cancer
 *9 "Increased Green and Yellow Vegetable Intake and Lowered Cancer Deaths
 in an Elderly Population" 32-36 Vol.41 1985 Am J Clin Nutr


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