Want to prevent skin cancer? Eat more tomatoes … new science confirms powerful anti-cancer effect
07/26/2017 / By Cassie B.
If you’re worried about skin cancer but you don’t want to slather yourself in toxic sunscreen before heading outdoors, you might have heard the advice that a proper diet full of antioxidants can naturally boost your skin’s sun protection. While this remains an effective approach, a new study shows there is one food in particular you should focus on if you’re a man: tomatoes.
According to a study out of Ohio State University, daily tomato consumption can slash skin cancer tumor development by as much as 50 percent.
The study, which was published in Scientific Reports, discovered that male mice who were fed a diet composed of ten percent tomato powder each day over the course of 35 weeks had a 50 percent reduction in skin cancer tumors when compared to mice who did not eat any dehydrated tomato after being exposed to ultraviolet light.
Interestingly, the same effect was not seen in the female mice who were studied. Past research has found that male mice develop tumors more quickly after being exposed to UV light, and their tumors tend to be bigger, greater in number and more aggressive.
The scientists believe that it’s the carotenoids in the tomatoes that are responsible for this protective effect against damage from UV light in the male mice. These pigmenting compounds are what give tomatoes their red color, and past studies have shown that they are deposited into human skin after eating tomatoes. In fact, previous human trials have found that consuming tomato paste can help dampen sunburns.
The primary carotenoid in tomatoes, lycopene, is the most effective antioxidant among the various pigments, but other compounds are also believed to play a role because synthesized lycopene supplements did not prevent redness following UV exposure as well as consuming the entire tomato in the previous study.
The senior author of the latest report, Tatiana Oberyszyn, said that the new finding shows how considering sex could be useful in discovering appropriate preventive strategies for skin cancer as measures that work in men might not necessarily work in women.