Higher consumption of tomatoes could be associated with a decreased risk of liver cancer caused by high-fat diets, a study has found.The study, conducted on mice, showed that tomatoes are rich in lycopene—a strong antioxidant, anti-inflammatory and anti-cancer agent—which helps in effectively reducing fatty liver disease, inflammation and liver cancer development. “Consuming whole foods like tomatoes and processed tomatoes from sauces, tomato paste, canned whole tomato products, ketchup and juice, provides the best source of lycopene,” said Xiang-Dong Wang, Professor at Tufts University in the US. Interestingly, we observed that tomato powder is more effective than the same dose of purified lycopene supplementation to prevent liver cancer development, said Wang. This could be due to the potential beneficial effects of other nutrients in a whole tomato, such as vitamin E, vitamin C, folate, minerals, phenolic compounds and dietary fibres.In addition, feeding mice tomato powder increased the richness and diversity of beneficial microbiota and prevented the over-growth of some bacteria related to inflammation, said the study, published in the journal Cancer Prevention Research.
