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FIGHT CANCER: EAT A TOMATO



http://www.essential.org/hightower/1997/ht970404.html

-- 
Lawrence F. London, Jr.
mailto:london@sunSITE.unc.edu  
http://sunSITE.unc.edu/InterGarden
Title: FIGHT CANCER: EAT A TOMATO

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FIGHT CANCER: EAT A TOMATO


Friday, April 4, 1997

I am in hog heaven. Or, more precisely, tomato heaven.

Something I like to eat has actually been declared by the medical researchers as GOOD for me -- Tomatoes!

I love 'em, whatever the variety -- plum or golden globe, early girl or big boy -- they are the natural goodness of the gods. You can slice 'em, dice 'em, eat 'em raw, fry 'em green, make a sauce, put 'em in a salad, put 'em in a stew . . . and otherwise put 'em in you.

Now comes word that not only are they good, but good for you, containing an abundance of lycopene, one of the most potent cancer fighters our bodies can get. A major, six-year study at Harvard Medical School finds that consuming tomatoes, tomato sauce or -- now get this -- pizza more than twice a week reduces risk of prostate cancer by as much as a third, and other studies find tomatoes just as effective at preventing colon and other cancers.

The redder the tomato the better, because it will have more lycopene in it -- and vine-ripened tomatoes are the best of all, containing way more of this natural, cancer-beating redness than those artificially-ripened, hard, industrial tomatoes of agribusiness.

If you agree that this is wonderful news, wait til I tell you that it's best to eat tomatoes with a little bit of fat -- as in olive oil and cheese. The fat improves your body's absorption of the lycopene. Let's see now: tomato sauce + cheese + olive oil. Yes, that equals pizza!

Researchers also have found that taking lycopene pills manufactured by some drug company won't do the cancer-fighting trick. Instead, the lycopene stored naturally in the red tomato works in concert with other elements in the fruit, so it is the whole food that should be consumed, not some extract of it. In other words, we don't need a drug -- we need a pizza!

This is Jim Hightower . . . Headed for my spring garden-plot to plant me some cancer-pills. Ain't nature grand?


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