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The IFTF Blog
More on tomatoes . . .
A couple of weeks ago, I made some crack about lycopene and ketchup (here). On the American Cancer Society website today, I noticed the headline, "FDA: Tomatoes Unlikely to Lower Cancer Risk." It turns out that the FDA now says there is "no credible evidence" that lycopene reduces the risk of cancer, and only "very limited credible evidence" that tomatoes and tomato sauce do. (They don't mention ketchup!) There have been numerous studies conducted on the subject, but the FDA has rejected most of them for various deficiencies.
Why is the FDA weighing in on the scientific validity of lycopene claims? According to a Cancer Society news story,
The FDA review was prompted by requests the agency received in 2004 from companies that wanted to put cancer-related health claims on their tomato or lycopene products. The companies asked the FDA to review the evidence linking these compounds to lower risks of several cancers including prostate, lung, colorectal, stomach, breast, cervical, endometrial, ovarian, and pancreatic cancer.
In the interest of truth in advertising, the FDA has ruled that companies cannot make cancer-preventing health claims with respect to tomatoes. But we know (or think we know*) that an overall healthy diet that includes a variety of fruits and vegetables reduces the risk of cancer, so as the article says, "if you like tomatoes, dig in."
*Why do I say "think we know"? Because right next to the tomato headline on the American Cancer Society homepage is this headline: "Study: Loading Up on Fruits and Veggies Won't Lower Breast Cancer Recurrence." It turns out that, much to the disappointment of the researchers, a long-term study of breast cancer survivors shows that eating more than the recommended 5 daily servings of vegetables and fruit has no effect on breast cancer recurrence or deaths.